Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-04-20)

 TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek April 20, 2020

19

THEBOTTOMLINE It seemscutelittlepastelanimalsona

tropicalislandarejustwhattheworldneedednow.Nintendo’s

challengeis keepingupwithdemand.

accidentallylandedit rightinthemiddleofwide-
spreadlockdownsandshelter-at-homeordersas
theworldgrappledtoreininthespreadofthe
novelcoronavirus.Formany,theexperienceofthe
pandemicandtheescapismthegamehasprovided
willbeindeliblylinked.“Noothergameshavesuch
anoverwhelmingsalesmomentum,andit’sclear
thefranchiseis gettinga lotofnewfansduetothe
world’sfightagainstcoronavirus,”saysFamitsu’s
headofresearch,MitsunobuUwatoko.“Nintendo
ouldhavesoldmoreSwitchunitsif it
hadenoughinventory.”
Nowthreeyearsold,theSwitch
consoleis sellingfasterthanwhenit
unched,causinglogisticalheadaches
orNintendo.MostSwitchproductionin
thepastcoupleofmonthshascomefrom
Vietnam,withNintendo’sproductionpartner
inChina,HonHaiPrecisionIndustryCo.,priori-
tizingAppleInc.iPhoneswhilerestartingfactories
aftercoronavirusshutdowns.A Nintendospokes-
mansaysChina’sproductioncapacityremains
“limited.”Thecompanyhadtolimitdomesticship-
mentstofulfillexistingpreordersinthesecond
weekofApril.TheSwitchis soldoutatmajorretail-
ersinJapan,theU.S.,andmanyEuropeancoun-
tries. New Horizons reportedly has been removed
for sale in China after some players in Hong Kong
used the game to stagepro-democracy protests.
For the lucky oneswho’vemanagedtoget
their hands on the device,lifeinNewHorizons
is pretty good, if not with
lenges. Masahiro Sekiguc
38-year-old product plan
at a startup in Tokyo,say
he decided to try Anim
Crossing for the first time
company asked employ
from home. He now spen
hours in the game every
his 6-year-old daughter,
design furniture and cloth

“SomecolleaguesuseZoom’svideochatap

toplaythegametogether,andI havesetupa

dedicatedthreadinthecompanysocialnet-

worktoaskbasics,”Sekiguchisays.“Theytold

meI shouldhitrockswitha shoveltogetiron

stones,becauseit seemstheresourceis impor

antbutsupplyis limited.”—TakashiMochizuk

YukiFurukawa,andDebbyWu

Lee Dong-hoon couldn’t take any more of the

bloody masks. This was January, early in the

coronavirus’s sweep through South Korea, and mis-

information, including rumors about contaminated

businessesand phony photos of masks supposedly

id-19 victims, seemed to be everywhere on

dia. The Korea Centers for Disease Control

vention was releasing detailed situation

butthey were much tougher to decipher

cethan a scary Facebook post. So Lee, an

ring student at Kyung Hee University in

reated a website he hoped could act as a

weight.

in a day the self-taught coder set up

ap.site, which tracked the spread of infec-

henext day 2.4 million people visited after

Citizen Coders

Are Stepping Up

○ White-hat hackers, web developers, and students are taking the

initiative to index coronavirus cases and build day-to-day tools

Lockdown Pickup
Nintendostockprice

Nintendo

Switchrelease

Nintendo

SwitchLite

release

MarioKart 8

Deluxerelease

SuperSmashBros.

Ultimate release

AnimalCrossing:

NewHorizons

release

¥50k

35 k

20 k

400k

200 k

0 k

1/4/17 4/13/20 12/30 4/5

Weeklysalesin Japan

Switch

 Switch Lite

wo

h

la

fo

th

s

pp

a

d

• rt-
  ki,

,

utsome modestc -

h, a

r

ys

his

s towor

d a couple

y,bondingwit

hoplays mainly to

g.

fr

al m

andPr

report

ata g

engine

ou

counte

Wi

ronam

tions.Th