Nintendo president on Switch 2 memory costs and console’s price, “slightly weaker” overseas sales

We have a few more comments from Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, who has spoken about memory costs for Switch 2 and how that could impact the console’s price. He also shared a few words about hardware sales.

There’s been a lot of talk about rising memory prices due to a shortage stemming from AI data centers. Unfortunately, this is impacting a lot of different things, including video games. The good news is that Nintendo won’t be seeing an immediate impact. The bad news is that Nintendo’s profitability could be impacted in the future.

Furukawa said the following during the Q&A session of a financial results briefing this week:

“While we do not discuss specific components in detail, regarding memory-related parts, we are engaging in discussions with our suppliers from a long-term perspective and striving to ensure stable supply. Therefore, the recent surge in memory prices has not significantly impacted hardware profitability during the cumulative period of the third quarter. Furthermore, we do not anticipate a significant impact in the fourth quarter either.
However, if the surge in component prices persists beyond expectations into the next fiscal year and beyond, we believe it could potentially pressure profitability. Should the situation deteriorate significantly, we will carefully assess market trends and take appropriate measures.

Regarding future price changes for the Switch 2 hardware, no decisions have been made at this time. Price adjustments are determined comprehensively, considering not only profitability but also the platform’s adoption status, sales trends, and market conditions.”

During the same event, Furukawa commented on the performance of Nintendo Switch 2 hardware sales. Whereas sales were higher than expected domestically, they were “slightly weaker” overseas.

According to Furukawa:

“While our forecasted global hardware and software sales volume remains unchanged, the breakdown by region and product is based on different assumptions from the revised forecast announced at the time of our second-quarter financial results announcement.

Furthermore, as you understand, domestic hardware sales volume exceeded our expectations, while overseas sales were slightly weaker than our expectations.

We believe that the reason for the stronger-than-expected hardware sales in Japan is that, amid the continued momentum of the initial launch of the Switch 2 hardware, new titles such as Pokemon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition and Kirby Air Riders, released during the holiday shopping season, [leading] to a relatively high trend of existing Switch owners switching to the Switch 2 compared to overseas.”