Nintendo FY3/2019 Q3 financial results briefing live blog
Nintendo’s FY3/2019 Q3 financial results briefing is about to begin. Analyst David Gibson is in attendance, and will be kind enough to share information that is being shared throughout the event. We’ll be rounding up the various tidbits below.
Presentation
– Starting out by going over the financials now, which we reported on earlier today
– Revised down Switch from 20m to 17m hardware units as software did not capture enough growth
– President Shuntaro Furukawa: software growing at rapid pace, lays foundation for further business expansion
– NA and EU software sales in Q3 were beyond Nintendo’s expectations
– Core first-party titles have passed 10m each, these have driven unprecedented growth
– Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in Japan with 3.32m sales is outpacing all previous Smash titles before
– Super Mario Party designed for families but also appealing to those in their 20s
– Captured momentum with four core titles: Splatoon 2, Super Mario Odyssey, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
– Nintendo Labo: expected it to sell different manner, used in 100 elementary schools
– Third-party sales: for 9 month period sales are up more than double year-over-year
– Asia more important, 3DS got 1.4% of sales but Switch is already at 7% from Asia
– From 2014 redefined plans, Nintendo wanted to increase contact point for customers with IP
– Need unique product and services; leverage Nintendo IP on aggressive manner, expand scale; leverage Nintendo Account
– Nintendo Switch Online has more than 8m accounts
– Furukawa: No longer fit to expand game population but increase value for users
– Three core pillars – dedicated devices, mobile, and IP business
– Nintendo World at Universal Park Japan will be ready in 2020, the Olympic year
– Illumination Super Mario movie aiming for 2022
– Nintendo Tokyo store will open in Shibuya at Parco building
– Next year want to capture further growth in hardware and software …do that with strong game line-up
Q&A
– Next year want to capture further growth in hardware and software; do that with strong game line-up
– For game development teams are more integrated now, working better together, not taking more time to make games, other software doing cannot talk about yet, not have delay in titles that market is concerned about
– 3DS Nintendo revised the numbers, market is shrinking faster than expected
– 3DS appeals to customers as its light, compact, affordable and is suitable game entry device
– Switch aim is from 1 per household to 1 per person or several per household
– Super Nintendo World is priority for 2020 launch, then US, London and Hollywood
– Of 700 developers in Kyoto, have high number of women, especially for game design
– Nintendo Online – retention is critical, contents will be enhanced throughout the year
– Nintendo Switch Online was driven by Splatoon 2 and then Smash Bros; seeing increase in monthly plan
– Why wont Switch be boom/bust like the Wii? Wii was for anyone to play…to try once and hence why it grew explosively, Switch has several titles to drive, Switch is different from Wii, think can capture growth
– Nintendo is preparing other titles, not able to say too much here, continue to release titles that are fun
– They have a lot of ideas, important that contents are unique to Nintendo, are not denying approval for internal development ideas
