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:
The Nintendo eShop on Switch, 3DS and Wii U will undergo maintenance next week for a period of two hours, during which it will be unavailable. The exact times are below:
- 3 PM PT (May 8) – 5 PM PT (May 8)
- 6 PM ET (May 8) – 8 PM ET (May 8)
- 11 PM in the UK (May 8) – 1 AM in the UK (May 9)
- 12 AM in Europe (May 9) – 2 AM in Europe (May 9)
The Switch is a massive sales success so far, which can be partially attributed to Nintendo’s continuous and prolific advertising of the system. A particular focus for the company seems to have to been ads on US television. In fact, according to research conducted by VentureBeat, no one in the games industry spent more on US TV ads in March 2017 than Nintendo.
Over 30% of the industry spend on TV ads in March (about $18.3 million) came from Nintendo. They aired 16 spots over 4,100 times and generated 583.5 million TV ad impressions. The biggest ad of the month was the Switch TV spot called “Believer”, which featured music by Imagine Dragons. Nintendo put a particular focus on ads that aired on Nick, Adult Swim, and Comedy Central, as well as during the NCAA basketball tournament, episodes of South Park and Nickelodeon’s 2017 Kids’ Choice Awards.
The Water Gym Cup in Pokemon Duel is now available, provided you’ve downloaded the latest update. The big draw is [EX] Kyogre, which can be obtained from gym boosters or after victories.
For the duration of the event, all Water-type Movement 1 & 2 figures get an additional 1 movement and all Grass-type figures get a boost of 20 to each of their attacks.
It feels like we’re getting a new feature reveal for Dragon Quest XI pretty much every week, and this week is no exception. This week’s Jump magazine has revealed the new “Zone” feature, which, among other things, allows the use of powerful co-op skills (thanks Siliconera for the translation).
We’ve actually seen the “Zone” feature briefly before in some screenshots. When the protagonist glows with a blue aura during battle, that’s the sign on him activating Zone. Not only do his stats temporarily increase, it also allows you to use powerful co-op skills – techniques in which the hero and one or more party members combine their powers to unleash a powerful attack. Jump magazine list three examples of co-op skills:
- Falcon Dance: the hero and Camus dance around an enemy, repeatedly attacking it with swift sword strikes
- Rose Hurricane: the hero, Sylvia and Row combine their magic powers and Sylvia’s love to unleash a powerful whirlwind
- Giga Burst: all party members team up and gather their powers in the hero’s sword, who delivers a devastating strike
However, players aren’t the only ones who can use this power – some enemies are also able to use “Zone” and co-op skills.
