Kimishima: Unannounced 3DS games coming, wants more Wii U titles like Splatoon and Mario Maker
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima took on a number of investor questions during Nintendo’s financial results briefing a few days ago. One of the more interesting responses came about towards the end of the event. Most of what the question asked is over my head and there will be an official translation in a few days, but it was essentially about the next financial period, and how Wii U and 3DS factors into that.
Kimishima starts off by reiterating a key point from his presentation: the spread amount of 3DS systems is 20 million units domestically, and 54 million units worldwide. This means Nintendo’s handheld had a big chance to obtain profits from software as well. As for what lies ahead in the next period, Kimishima said development on software continues, including large-scale titles that can’t be announced just yet. He believes that the 3DS will remain a big pillar in the next period.
Moving onto Wii U, it still just reached a spread of 10 million units worldwide. If you compare that number to 3DS, it’s still not enough. However, titles like Splatoon and Super Mario Maker have a favorable reputation, so Kimishima thinks Nintendo would like to be able to release titles that could receive the same sort of reputation in the next period as well.
Kimishima wouldn’t talk about new enterprises, as he would instead like to go more in-depth when Nintendo announces forecasts for the next period. That means the financial results briefing wasn’t a place to speak about NX either. Kimishima did mention that Nintendo is currently progressing on considering various developments and plans towards the system’s release, so he thinks it will need even more investments than now.
Kimishima also mentioned that Nintendo is wondering how customers will evaluate their smart device apps. Additionally, he believes it’s important that the company’s various IPs should be recognized by consumers, but it’s unlikely to become a big business with just a single swoop.
