Photo/Illutration Nintendo Switch game console (Provided by Nintendo Co.)

Nintendo Co. announced Feb. 6 that shipping of Nintendo Switch game consoles made in China will be delayed due to the effects of the new coronavirus.

Nintendo Switch consoles “are expected to be scarce,” a Nintendo public relations representative said, due to a slowdown in manufacturing, which the company called unavoidable. 

Nintendo, which outsources Switch’s manufacturing to factories in China, said its Ring Fit Adventure game has also been held up for shipping.

Beijing's decision to extend the Chinese New Year holidays to cope with the coronavirus outbreak led to a labor shortage that played havoc with Nintendo's supply chain.

Though the gamemaker moved part of its production to Vietnam last year, it is unable to rapidly expand its production of consoles there, said Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa.

On Jan. 30, Nintendo raised its worldwide sales target for units in fiscal 2019 from the initial estimate 18 million units to 19.5 million units.

Thanks to a sales boom between April and December 2019, Nintendo raked in 1.0226 trillion yen ($9.29 billion), 2.5 percent higher than the same period last year. The gamemaker's net income for the period was 196.3 billion yen, up 16.4 percent from a year earlier.

But since then, effects of the widespread coronavirus have cast a shadow over sales of Switch.

Despite the shipping setback, Nintendo does not plan to adjust its business performance forecast, but intends to closely monitor the effects of the outbreak on its operations, according to the Nintendo representative.

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