Nintendo financial results briefing call Q&A – barely in middle of Switch lifecycle, additional mobile games coming, more
Posted on May 7, 2020 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News, Switch
After Nintendo released its latest financial results today, the company hosted a conference call with investors. This replaced the traditional briefing we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years, but a Q&A session was still held.
Analyst David Gibson was on the call and passed along details from the Q&A portion. Here’s the full roundup of tidbits:
– Guidance – thinks impact on production for Switch is over by summer, seen some impact in April in parts, but think can make up from summer onwards
– Most employees working from home which could impact planned title schedule
– Animal Crossing sales were about 50% download
– Digital was high in Q4, don’t assume this level will continue but for fiscal year it will grow
– Barely in the middle of the Switch cycle, no change to that view
– Internally looking at what can do to be more flexible, to adjust for consumers doing stay at home
– Working from home in Japan impact on development is quite significant, but now understanding better what we can and cannot do; depends on how prolonged the impact
– Trying to ramp production for Ring Fit Adventure so can capture demand
– Animal Crossing interest spread from 20-30s and women to family and friends and then spread via social media; plan to market 2nd and 3rd title for those people from existing titles
– Nintendo Switch Online users over 15 million, has increased from Pokemon and Animal Crossing
– Switch sales in China are not really big numbers in FY3/20, is included in guidance but contribution is not very large
– Increased ad budget – now entering mid stage of Switch cycle so want to reach those who don’t play games, hence budgeting a little more
– Smartphone games – plan new games but cannot announce yet
– Super Mario Run has passed 400 million downloads
– Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp saw active users increase from Switch title launch, think SP is a great way to reach out to wide range of consumers
