TOKYO— Nintendo Co. NTDOY 5.62% said it used aircraft to ship its new Switch videogame machine in its first month on the market, an unusual and costly logistics measure responding to unexpectedly high demand.
Earlier, Nintendo said it shipped 2.74 million units of the Switch in the month after it went on sale March 3, up from an initial plan of two million.
“We carried some of the Switches by plane in March to serve our customers more promptly,” a company spokesman said. He said Nintendo switched back in April to less-expensive sea freight to replenish store shelves.
Nintendo didn’t say where the planes were used, but analysts and others briefed on the logistics said the flights took Switch machines to the U.S. and Europe from factories in China.
Ace Research Institute analyst Hideki Yasuda said further use of air freight was possible because the item remains hard to find at retailers globally. “Air is a big profit-squeezer because it could cost additional ¥5,000 per unit,” or about $45, he said.
Waseda Business School professor Atsushi Osanai said it was worth the price to get the product off to a good start.
“It is important that companies sell as many units as possible, as quickly as possible, while customer interest is high,” he said. The initial months are critical for a game machine, because strong hardware sales drive interest from software creators, and a wealth of software titles in turn generates interest in the hardware.
