As the Switch nears its eighth year on the market, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa announced their plans to continuously release new content for the console. Read on to learn about the current state of the Switch and Nintendo’s plans for its future.
Nintendo Intends to Prolong the Nintendo Switch Lifespan
Will Release New Content for the Switch Without Being Bound by Traditional Platform Lifecycles
In a recent financial results briefing, Nintendo President, Shuntaro Furukawa, outlined the company's strategy for the future of the Nintendo Switch. Furukawa announced that the company aims to extend the lifespan and user engagement of the Nintendo Switch, as it reaches significant milestones in its product life cycle.
“We will continue to release new titles and content for Nintendo Switch without being bound by the traditional concept of the platform lifecycle. Going forward, we would like to continue to see many consumers play Nintendo Switch, and to maintain our business momentum,” said the company’s president.
Continued Success of Nintendo Switch
The financial results for Nintendo's most recent quarter reflect the continued success of the Nintendo Switch. Both hardware and software unit sales increased year-on-year, which the company attributed to the impact of their highly-acclaimed game “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom,” alongside the recent movie tie-in of the Mario franchise, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
Below are some key highlights from the financial report:
● Nintendo Switch hardware sales for FY2023 Q1-Q2 increased from 6.68 million units to 6.84 million units (+2.4%)
● Nintendo Switch software sales for the same period increased from 95.41 million units to 97.08 million units (+1.8%)
Their financial forecast for FY2024 predicted an additional 5.00 million units, totaling 185.00 million units of Nintendo Switch software sales.
Current State and Future of Nintendo Switch
The Nintendo Switch is set to enter its eighth year in March 2024. In line with their commitment to the Nintendo Switch, Furukawa announced that Nintendo will continue to release new titles and content, with a particular focus on the Super Mario franchise.
They anticipate that these titles will benefit from the positive momentum generated by The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Since its launch in March 2017, the Nintendo Switch has achieved remarkable success, with cumulative sales of the Nintendo Switch family of systems exceeding 130 million units, and cumulative software sales surpassing 1.13 billion units by September 30, 2023.
Growing Success of Long-Running Game Series and Long-Term Sellers
Furukawa noted that the growth of the hardware install base has translated into sustained high levels of software sales even in the platform's seventh year. Notably, series titles on the Nintendo Switch have seen unprecedented growth, with the newest titles of iconic franchises surpassing sales of their predecessors.
For instance, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 57.01 million units on the Switch, compared to 23.6 million units on the DS; and Animal Crossing sold 43.48 million units on the Switch, compared to 11.75 million units on the DS.
Additionally, a trend observed in many Nintendo Switch titles is that they evolve into long-term sellers, with sales continuing to increase even in their second year and beyond. Furukawa attributes this sustained success to the company's strengthened localization process for first-party titles, making many of them available in a variety of languages.
With a focus on continuing to release new titles and content, and leveraging the momentum created by their business model, Nintendo aims to maintain and expand user engagement with the Switch platform.
Source:
Nintendo Briefing for Financial Year Ending March 2024
