Nintendo Switch 2 offers plenty of power and has new features like mouse controls and GameChat, but it’s building off the foundations of its predecessor. Partially because of that, some have the belief that it’s not much of an innovation.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa responded to that claim during a financial results briefing Q&A this week. The big takeaway is that developers have needed “higher hardware processing power in order to realize one of Nintendo’s most important values, ‘proposing new ways to play.'” Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza were cited as two examples “that could not be realized on the Nintendo Switch.” Mario Kart World features an open world with more racers on the track than ever before while Donkey Kong Bananza contains destructible environments.

More: Donkey Kong Bananza, Mario Kart World, Shuntaro Furukawa

Nintendo president discusses Switch 2 sales expectations, aiming for Switch 1-like start

Posted on 2 weeks ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch, Switch 2 | 0 comments

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has provided further insight into the company’s initial sales expectations for Switch 2.

As part of yesterday’s financial results, we heard that Nintendo is forecasting 15 million units sold for the first year. Following up on that, during the Q&A portion of the company’s briefing, an investor brought up that this seems to be a somewhat conservative number.

More: sales, Shuntaro Furukawa, top

Nintendo boss on company’s approach to new tech

Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has weighed in on how the company approaches new technology.

In an interview with NHK translated by Nintendo Everything, Furukawa indicated rather than pursuing tech for the sake of it, it’s instead about “how they can lead to revolutions in the act of play itself.” Also mentioned is that Nintendo is pursuing new technology in general, but isn’t focusing on one specific area.

More: interview, Shuntaro Furukawa, top

Nintendo director salaries for Shuntaro Furukawa, Miyamoto, and more shared in 2023 annual report

Posted on 1 year ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Nintendo’s latest annual report for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, which was just issued today, outlines the salaries of the company’s top directors including president Shuntaro Furukawa and Shigeru Miyamoto.

As the head of Nintendo, Furukawa earns the most with a salary of $2.51 million. Miyamoto follows in second with $2.02 million. The rest of the list rounds out with Shinya Takahashi (one of the hosts in the last Nintendo Direct) at $1.61 million, Satoru Shibata at $1.91 million, and Ko Shiota at $910,000. Note that these figures were converted from yen.

More: Shigeru Miyamoto, Shuntaro Furukawa, top

Nintendo president says Switch successor will utilise “Nintendo Account” system

Posted on 1 year ago by Dawn in News, Switch | 0 comments

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has revealed that the successor to the Switch will utilise the same “Nintendo Account” system when it releases.

Furukawa shared that information during Nintendo’s recent shareholder Q&A. He stated that the desire was to ensure as smooth a transition for customers as possible. Over 290 million Nintendo Accounts have been made worldwide, so it is unsurprising that Nintendo would want to continue to support this system.

More: Nintendo Account, Shuntaro Furukawa, top

Nintendo president says no plans for a Switch price increase, talks hardware production

Posted on 2 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments

According to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, the company has no plans to increase the price of the Switch.

Furukawa shared that information in an interview with Nikkei. He said that Switch demand is currently outpacing supply, but that doesn’t mean Nintendo will up the price. The company wants to “avoid pricing people out” and “maintain the momentum of our overall business.”

Furukawa’s comments came about while talking about Switch hardware production as well as sales targets. You can read the brief interview below.

More: interview, Shuntaro Furukawa, top

Shuntaro Furukawa on joining Nintendo and how Mario Kart changed his life

Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

Shuntaro Furukawa managed to make it to the very top of Nintendo as the company’s president. Tatsumi Kimishima briefly held the position following the sudden passing of Satoru Iwata, but Furukawa took over in 2018 and has stayed there since.

In a piece on Nikkei, Furukawa shared some background on his experience with Nintendo and joining the company. As it turns out, he didn’t really play most of the Big N’s games and instead was more interested in third-party titles. But after receiving a suggestion to play Super Mario Kart, he started to understand Nintendo’s greatness.

More: Shuntaro Furukawa, top

Nintendo says component shortages involving Switch starting to impact its gross profit

Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments

It’s no secret that there have been component shortages for all sorts of technology, including Switch. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has now said that the situation is starting to impact the company’s gross profit due to increased costs.

During Nintendo’s financial results briefing last week, Furukara explained that the “rise is gradual” and there will only be a small impact this fiscal year. However, “if costs continue at current levels through next fiscal year as well, then we would expect hardware profitability to decrease correspondingly compared to this fiscal year.” Also brought up is how the Switch OLED has a lower profit margin compared to the standard Switch and Switch Lite.

Furukawa stated:

More: Shuntaro Furukawa, top

Nintendo on sales of evergreen Switch titles

Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa spoke about sales of evergreen Switch titles during the company’s financial results briefing last week.

According to Furukawa, the system saw a percentage of 50-60 percent for older first-party software over the past few months. He mentioned that new Switch buyers tend to pick up “an evergreen title as their second or third game.” However, going forward, Nintendo expects that there’ll be “more purchases of multiple systems within the same household, as well as consumers replacing a previous Nintendo Switch system with Nintendo Switch – OLED Model.”

Furukawa’s full words:

More: Shuntaro Furukawa, top

Nintendo’s full comments on the metaverse and NFTs

Posted on 3 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments

During the Q&A portion of its financial results briefing last week, Nintendo was asked about the metaverse and NFTs. While we had a very brief summary at the time, the full and official comments are now available.

Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa addressed the news directly. In his response, he mentioned how the metaverse “has great potential”, but also admitted that there’s currently “no easy way to define specifically what kinds of surprises and enjoyment the metaverse can deliver to our consumers.” Fans will likely be happy to hear that it sounds like Nintendo has no immediate plans to pursue this space.

Furukawa’s full comments regarding Nintendo, NFTs, and the metaverse can be found below.