Despite the continuing positive news surrounding Nintendo's latest console, the Switch, selling modestly well since its launch in March -- recent figures from Nintendo themselves revealing the console had sold an estimate of 4.7 million units during its first four months alone -- there's been an equal amount of coverage pertaining to the lack of availability and meeting of demand from both physical and online retailers alike. Be it in Europe, the US, even in the company's home-land of Japan where consumers have had to enter lottery-style draws just to have a chance of purchasing the console. Coming at a time when another new piece of hardware, the notorious SNES Classic, has also been having its own share of publicity regarding its availability (or lack thereof), Nintendo's public perception of not meeting consumer demand has been hard to shrug off.

Fortunately, Nintendo have set out to address this issue, albeit with the Switch; speaking to The Wall Street Journal in a statement, the company have said that they are aiming to increase hardware production in time to meet the expected demand, especially during the inevitable Holiday period rush. "We're doing everything we can to make sure everyone who wants to buy a Nintendo Switch system can do so," Nintendo explained. "We will ramp up production for the holiday period, which has been factored into our forecast." The company have already had their sales forecast increase to 10 million up to the end of the next Fiscal Year, March 31 2018, following a successful launch of both hardware and software units already -- sources close to the console's production and supply chain have even come out and stated that this may even increase to 18 million units should the current consumer demand continue and of course Nintendo do step up production of the console to meet such a demand. Going as far as to claim that they were "ready to pick up the pace of production if asked".

With even major US retailers reporting the selling-out of units, Nintendo would be wise to capitalise on the positive reception the Switch has already garnered from fans and critics alike and not simply create artificial hype and/or limit retailers -- and by extension, the fans -- to a conservatively small amount. Nintendo still have a few exclusive big hitters in the form of Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 coming up, so for the time being, all eyes are on Nintendo in maintaining this good momentum.