Want to play “Breath of the Wild?” Don’t hold your breath

The Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s latest console, is capable of functioning as both a home console and a mobile console, making it hugely appealing to gamers who want to play their favorite games on the go. It is also the main platform for “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” a hugely popular new open-air Zelda game that is already MetaCritic’s fourth-best-reviewed game of all time.

The console was released on March 4th and performed incredibly well, particularly in Japan. Thus far, it has outpaced the PS4 in terms the number of units shipped by around a hundred thousand units.

However, despite the fact that the console has only been out for a relatively short amount of time, the console has been, for the most part, unavailable to most would-be consumers. Around mid-January, the console went out of stock on most online retailers and was no longer available for pre-order. Since release, there have been only a few new shipments of stock, and when stores have gotten them, they’ve quickly run out.

Nintendo only had two million consoles ready to move at launch. While that may sound like a lot, when one considers the fact that the consoles are sold worldwide and that the consoles were sold out almost two months prior to release, it’s slightly concerning that Nintendo hasn’t done more to combat the lack of availability.

It’s even more concerning when one looks back at the NES Classic Edition, which was released back in early November. It also sold extremely well, but didn’t have enough supply to meet the demand. Even now, when new NES consoles become available in stores, they sell out very quickly; if the store they’re sold at is in a city, they even sell out within mere hours. Nintendo fans may have hoped that Nintendo would have learned their lesson from the NES Classic situation, but the fact that there isn’t far more stock readily available to the public seems to be a bad sign.

Although it might be nearly impossible to lay hands a Switch at the moment for those who don’t already have one, Nintendo officials do claim to be handling the situation and increasing production. In the meantime, anyone who wants to play “Breath of the Wild,” “1 2 Switch,” or any of the other new titles for Nintendo’s new console, might not want to hold their breaths.