This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima, as stated during the company’s financial results briefing Q&A…
“Takeda expressed interest in retiring and passing the torch when his term of office expires this period. Takeda’s guidance has fostered many technicians over the years, particularly in the technical development departments. Ko Shiota, who we have mentioned as a candidate for the new director, was one of those Takeda mentored while developing our business.
Even after his retirement, we hope to continue seeking advice from Takeda as Special Corporate Adviser such as in terms of how we should look into new technology and play. Takeda’s knowledge, experience and personal connections cannot be easily transferred. We plan to take over those over time in consulting with him. We hope to progress to the next stage by combining Takeda’s advice and support (as Special Corporate Adviser) with the new skills of our young employees.”
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima, as stated during the company’s financial results briefing Q&A…
With regards to our Nintendo 3DS business, our software sales figures in the last fiscal year were boosted significantly by titles, such as Pokémon titles, which helped increase hardware sales, and led to an overall year over year growth in sales of both hardware and software. And as discussed during our presentation, high demand for Nintendo 2DS is driven by an attractive price point on top of its hardware appeal. This is what gives Nintendo 2DS the largest growth rate out of the entirety of our Nintendo 3DS business.
We are planning to launch New Nintendo 2DS XL during this fiscal year. New Nintendo 2DS XL has screens that are the same large size as the New Nintendo 3DS XL, and can play more than 1000 Nintendo 3DS titles already released, at a very desirable price point. Our expectation is that if we are able to continue to provide enjoyable software, we will always meet the needs of consumers who want to continue playing on the existing Nintendo 3DS series. To that end, we are always thinking about what kinds of software consumers are going to want, and evaluating our hardware cycles to
make sure that we are meeting that need.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima, as stated during the company’s financial results briefing Q&A…
Our vision for Nintendo Switch is to release one title after another with no gaps following the March launch, reach a large number of consumers during the holiday season, and continue to expand the business. Along the way, we found that a lot of consumers were looking forward to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild being released simultaneously with the hardware, which led to our stronger-than-anticipated hardware launch.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was getting good press leading up to its release and it continued to generate buzz about the fun of this game after it hit the market. The fact is that people who had enjoyed past titles in the Zelda series were playing this latest entry alongside a large number of consumers who had never played any of the Zelda games, which truly expanded our consumer base. And just today, we released Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is a title that families can all play together, so we are making sure that this translates into good sell-through, given that our shipments are already higher than we anticipated. Likewise, upcoming releases like ARMS and Splatoon 2 are very easy for anyone to pick up and play, which further broadens our player base while still offering a deep gameplay experience for serious game fans. We will also have Super Mario Odyssey out in time for the year-end shopping season, and there may be some more titles we will be able to introduce. By releasing a variety of software titles in this way, we expect to expand the user base for Nintendo Switch to families, children, and any other consumers who have not had much contact with video games in the past.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima, as stated during the company’s financial results briefing Q&A…
We set this fiscal year’s 10 million shipment forecast for Nintendo Switch based on the fact that we were able to ship 2.74 million units during the last fiscal year, which was well above our initial forecast of 2 million units, combined with the response our sales offices around the world have reported from retailers and consumers about the software we will be releasing during this period.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was released today and although we did not cover it when creating our sales plans, it has gotten especially positive reviews. Feedback from consumers at our ARMS and Splatoon 2 preview events has been positive, as well. We have also gotten good feedback about 1-2-Switch, which has already been released, and offers consumers a new gaming experience that takes advantage of the unique strengths of Nintendo Switch. All this together gives me the sense that Nintendo Switch is going to outperform our initial expectations.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima, as stated during the company’s financial results briefing Q&A…
We priced the Nintendo Switch hardware to have no negative impact on overall earnings. As for the profitability of the hardware, our production quantities will need to reach a certain level before we see any cost reductions. Volume efficiencies will start to emerge once we produce the 10 million units we expect to ship this fiscal year, but we will not get the benefit of this right away. Looking ahead, we do expect that the number and variety of the Nintendo Switch accessories will help grow our business. With regards to promotional activities, it can be difficult for consumers to really get to realize how compelling the new play style Nintendo Switch offers is through traditional marketing. That is why we have launched new initiatives, including traveling to a variety of different locations to let consumers experience the unique fun of playing Nintendo Switch for themselves, while continuing to advertise proactively in this fiscal year. Our paid online service for Nintendo Switch is scheduled to start in the latter half of this fiscal year.
Again, we will not necessarily see results from these different strategies immediately at the outset of this fiscal year, but I believe we will see profitability continue to increase alongside the growth of our business as we move forward according to our sales strategy, especially if we do well during the year-end shopping season.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima, as stated during the company’s financial results briefing Q&A…
“We are deeply thankful for the wonderful response to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and the fact that we were able to ship more units than we did of the Nintendo Switch hardware. Since The Legend of Zelda series is very popular in Europe and in particular in the U.S., and the hardware launch was in March, we thought that we might end up with different results from a holiday season launch (when a wider range of consumers are likely to make purchases), and so we expected that there may be a high ratio of consumers who purchased this game along with the hardware.
The result was exactly as expected in the U.S., but the game is much larger in scale than previous games, and it reached greater popularity than we had expected in Europe and Japan as people tried it themselves or watched others play. Reviews of this game prior to release were also very helpful in communicating its appeal. Ultimately, we were able to achieve these results because of the response not only from fans of The Legend of Zelda series, but also from consumers who had played a Zelda game in the past and wanted to play one again, as well as consumers who had never played a Zelda game before but who heard the buzz and wanted to play.
We would certainly like to be able to predict the worldwide popularity of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, as you suggest, but we are still not able to forecast to that degree of accuracy. The end result was that the number of units of this game shipped was higher than the number of units of hardware shipped.”
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima, as stated during the company’s financial results briefing Q&A…
“Our initial plan for the Nintendo Switch hardware shipments for the last fiscal year was 2 million units, but we saw the high anticipation from consumers prior to launch and began additional production, allowing us to ultimately ship 2.74 million units. We are planning to ship 10 million units this fiscal year, and this figure takes into account the fantastic response we have received from consumers. Planning to ship 10 million units means that we actually plan to produce more than that including units in our warehouse and in-transit product. We are not currently producing this full amount all at once. We expect that the number of consumers who want to buy the hardware will increase as we release titles such as ARMS, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Odyssey, so our current production model takes that into account.”
This week’s Switch/ Wii U/3DS-specific UK software sales are as follows:
Switch
1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Nintendo
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo
3. Puyo Puyo Tetris – SEGA
4. 1-2-Switch – Nintendo
5. Super Bomberman R – Konami
6. Lego City Undercover – Warner Bros. Interactive
7. Just Dance 2017 – Ubisoft
8. Skylanders Imaginators – Activision Blizzard
Wii U
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo
2. Minecraft: Wii U Edition – Nintendo
3. Super Mario 3D World – Nintendo
4. Mario Kart 8 – Nintendo
5. Mario Party 10 – Nintendo
6. Just Dance 2017 – Ubisoft
7. New Super Mario Bros. U + Super Luigi U – Nintendo
8. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze – Nintendo
9. Star Fox Zero – Nintendo
10. Pokken Tournament – Nintendo
3DS
1. Pokemon Sun – Nintendo
2. Mario Kart 7 – Nintendo
3. Pokemon Moon – Nintendo
4. New Super Mario Bros. 2 – Nintendo
5. Tomodachi Life – Nintendo
6. Super Mario Maker – Nintendo
7. Yo-Kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits – Nintendo
8. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D – Nintendo
9. Mario Sports Superstars – Nintendo
10. Yo-Kai Watch 2: Fleshy Souls – Nintendo
Source: Chart-Track
The latest ARMS Twitter update highlights a neat little detail in the game: each fighter has their own set of supporters who appear in the crowds and dress up like them. In the image above, you can see fans dressed up as Min Min, Ribbon Girl and Ninjara.
One of the items supporters use to cheer on their favorite fighter are these inflatable sticks, which they’ll clap together:
