At the end of Nintendo’s financial results briefing today, president Tatsumi Kimishima briefly touched on plans for E3 2017. Kimishima noted that the big N “will not be hosting a large-scale press conference for institutional investors, analysts and the media.” Additionally, “Nintendo of America will present further information on our plans at a later date.”
Nintendo has not hosted a press conference at E3 in several years. The last time was in 2012 – since then we’ve seen various video presentations, although that was ditched entirely last year. The one aspect of Nintendo’s E3 plans that has continued is the Treehouse Live event, which will likely be returning.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
The Nintendo 3DS family of systems has spread steadily worldwide, surpassing a total sell-through of 63 million units of hardware. We will continue to work to make sure our business leverages this installed base by providing consumers with software.
With a multitude of titles already released, Nintendo 3DS has a large and fulfilling library. We believe that it is important that we channel these titles in our sales. Trends show that these evergreen titles continue to sell well in the long term, especially overseas. We want to encourage consumers who recently purchased hardware to purchase these
evergreen titles.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
As you can see, we are adding New Nintendo 2DS XL to the lineup of systems in the Nintendo 3DS family. Just like New Nintendo 3DS XL, which is currently available, New Nintendo 2DS XL has a clamshell design. It also has the same large LCD screen as New Nintendo 3DS XL and is a lightweight system for improved portability. Players can enjoy the more than 1,000 Nintendo 3DS software titles available in Japan on a 2D screen. Other than the fact that the screen displays in 2D, New Nintendo 2DS XL has the same basic capabilities as New Nintendo 3DS XL.
Note: The New Nintendo 2DS LL will sold outside of Japan as the New Nintendo 2DS XL.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
We will strive to utilize the large installed base of the Nintendo 3DS family of systems in our business to maintain the momentum we have regained over the last year.
As we conveyed at the Corporate Management Policy Briefing in February, Nintendo 3DS has characteristics as a handheld system that differ from those of Nintendo Switch. We do not think that they compete directly in terms of price point or
playstyle. We will run businesses separately and in parallel.We have also already stated that we think it is critical that we provide software unique to Nintendo 3DS in order to run both the Nintendo Switch business and the Nintendo 3DS business in parallel.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
We are planning to ship 10 million units of Nintendo Switch hardware in the fiscal year ending March 2018. The cumulative total for units shipped through the fiscal year ending March 2018 will be 12.7 million units.
During this period we will focus on extending the momentum of the Nintendo Switch business launch and achieving a broad installed base. All throughout the year, and of course during the holiday season, it is critical that we maintain buzz around Nintendo Switch.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
The fiscal year ended March 2017 was the first year that we kicked our smart-device business into full gear. The smart device business is a totally different ball game from the dedicated video game business, so we have offered a variety of playstyles and payment models. We used the broad installed base of smart devices to bring Nintendo IP to many consumers who would have been very difficult to reach with just dedicated video game systems. We were also able to generate opportunities for conversation about Nintendo’s games in general.
We believe that this process of experimentation with purchasing systems, services after release, and with the synergies brought by our existing business has given us valuable insights this year that will help grow the business going forward.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
Efforts to appeal to children and female consumers have paid off in the fiscal year ended March 2017. Furthermore, with the upsurge in popularity of Pokémon GO, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon accelerated sales for both hardware and software and brought even more momentum to the business.
This graph shows the total Nintendo 3DS family system sell-through for Japan, the U.S. and Europe for each fiscal year. Sell-through of Nintendo 3DS surpassed that of the previous period, despite being in its seventh fiscal year since launch.
Note 1: Nintendo 3DS hardware includes New Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS XL, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL and Nintendo 2DS.
Note 2: The New Nintendo 3DS LL and Nintendo 3DS LL are sold outside of Japan as the New Nintendo 3DS XL and Nintendo 3DS XL, respectively.
Note 3: Fiscal year = April through March of the following year
This graph shows the share of Nintendo 2DS within the total Nintendo 3DS hardware sell-through per region. Nintendo 2DS launched last year in the Japanese market. We reduced the price in the U.S. market in May of last year and saw an increase in sales that exceeded our expectations. We announced during our corporate management policy briefing in February that the share of sales of Nintendo 2DS is increasing. As you can see, while there are differences between regions, we have been able to leverage the product variation in the Nintendo 3DS family of systems.
This graph shows the total Nintendo 3DS fist-party sell-through software for Japan, the U.S. and Europe for each fiscal year. Please note that this includes software bundled with systems. Sell-through for first-party software saw major growth during the fiscal year ended March 2017. With Nintendo 3DS, we have seen that releasing major software allows us to leverage the installed base of the hardware to do business on a largescale. From a product-lifecycle perspective, we regained momentum over the last fiscal year and still see strong potential for the continuation of this business.
This is the cumulative sell-through trend in Japan, the U.S. and Europe for Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, which released in November of last year. Sales of this title have continued to grow even after the start of the new year. I think you will find that these sales show record momentum, even when compared against the sell-through trends one year after release of other Pokémon titles released on Nintendo 3DS in the past.
Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS, released worldwide in December last year, has achieved a total sell-through of two million units between Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Same as the last quarter, this title produces steady sales.
These figures represent the total number of units shipped worldwide for key Nintendo 3DS titles. The numbers in the red boxes represent the number of units shipped during the fiscal year ended March 2017 alone. Though many of these titles were originally released quite a while ago, we shipped an additional one million or more of several of these
titles this year.
This information comes from Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima…
1-2-Switch, which was also released at the same time as Nintendo Switch, is likewise on track to ship one million units very soon.
This title has become something of a hot topic due to the way it uses Nintendo Switch in some unconventional ways compared to other game systems. In particular, 1-2-Switch includes a minigame that lets players use the Joy-Con as if they were milking a cow. The realistic sensation players feel thanks to the unique HD Rumble feature in every Joy-Con was noticed by a farm museum in the U.S., and we sent some Nintendo employees to go out and face their dairy farming challenge. This generated additional buzz through media coverage.
