Nintendo on Switch Co-existing with 3DS & Nintendo Switch Online Details Coming this May

Carrying on with our Q&A coverage, next up on the agenda are Kimishima’s responses regarding the co-existing future of Switch and 3DS, Nintendo Switch online and digital sales growth:

 

3DS and Switch Co-existing:

Tatsumi Kimishima: “Consumers purchased Nintendo 3DS systems in numbers we expected last fiscal year. It has an ample software line-up at a price point that makes the system affordable especially for parents looking to buy for their kids. We expect that demand to continue during this fiscal year as well, so we will continue to sell the product. Given that Nintendo Switch is a home gaming system that can be taken on the go, this situation may change if it grows from being a one-per-household system to a one-per-person system. But the price of Nintendo Switch is not something with which most parents would buy a system for every one of their children in a short period of time. Moving forward, we will work to ascertain what kinds of play people want at which price points, and as long as there is such demand, we will continue to sell the Nintendo 3DS system. I see the product coexisting with Nintendo Switch at this point in time.”

 

Nintendo Switch Online Details will be Posted on the Nintendo Website this May:

Tatsumi Kimishima: “You will be able to read details about Nintendo Switch Online on our website in early May, but we are positioning the service as one means of increasing and enhancing the fun of playing Nintendo Switch. As we are preparing for the start of the service, costs have been incurred during this first half, but we do not expect the amount to be especially large. We are not discussing specific numbers with regards to sales after the paid service starts, but that has likewise been factored into the forecast for this fiscal year.”

 

Expanding the Market Keeping Switch Viable:

Tatsumi Kimishima: “As we discussed earlier, seeing how far we can expand the market in the second year of sales is incredibly important for a video game system, whether it is a handheld game system or a home console system. For the launch of Nintendo Switch, we conducted a variety of activities aimed at Nintendo fans and avid game players who we thought could be interested in Nintendo Switch, and I would say yielded good results. In this second year, the initiatives we are planning come from our recognition that we also have to challenge ourselves to delivering Nintendo Switch into the hands of consumers who have never played a Nintendo platform before, and to those have played before, but not recently. We set a sales target for the Nintendo Switch hardware of 20 million units during this fiscal year because it is essential that we exceed the 15.05 million units sold last fiscal year, and in order to sell more units than we did last fiscal year, the software line-up we have planned is meant to attract people including those who have not been playing video games recently. We have reached a consensus across the entire organization, including our overseas subsidiaries, to work towards reaching this level. That number of 20 million units is not one we will reach easily, but I believe we are primed to do it.

As for the Nintendo Switch life cycle, we need to steadily provide new experiences that will keep consumers always wanting to play Nintendo Switch in order to maintain sales for a long time. I cannot go into detail here today, but our company has a lot of experience with selling gaming systems, and we will actively incorporate everything we have learned, including our failures, into our planning. Changing environmental factors, including the activities of other companies, can impact the Nintendo Switch life cycle. So the benchmark is not whether Nintendo Switch sales can surpass total Wii sales, but rather how we adapt and respond to changes in the market and strive to continue selling Nintendo Switch as long as possible.”

 

Digital Sales and their Growing Appeal:

Tatsumi Kimishima: “I expect the percentage of digital sales will rise steadily in the years ahead. Consumers have grown accustomed to getting digital content, which is a trend that is clearly visible in the way consumers in North America and Europe purchase titles, and especially in the sales performance of titles from other publishers. Even so, there are also many consumers who purchase only packaged software, so I do not see digital content taking over all of sales. The sales ratio also differs for every software title, depending on factors like content and the age and type of consumers making the purchase, so I cannot predict how high the percentage of digital sales will rise for Nintendo. That being said, the percentage of digital sales has already risen above 50% on some titles released by publishers outside Japan, so I definitely think the percentage will rise for us.

As for the contribution to stable revenues, no contribution will be made if the percentage of digital sales increases but total unit sales of software declines. It is more important to create interesting titles that consumers want to buy.”

Source: nintendo.co.jp