All three major publishers had big news coming out this week. But it was Nintendo that had the most positive news, thanks to the financial briefing that they dropped. In it, they highlighted the success of the Switch and its games, including how recent titles in 2024 were already million-sellers. They also teased the company’s future by confirming that the Switch successor would be announced within the next fiscal year. To help highlight all the news, the Q&A with President Shuntaro Furukawa was translated, which contained insights about the Nintendo Switch and how the company would proceed going forward.
For example, Furukawa was asked about the upcoming Nintendo Direct and how the Switch and Switch successor was being handled due to the “lackluster” amount of games that has been dropped in 2024 so far:
“Creating a successor to Nintendo Switch takes years of preparation, so of course many aspects must be taken into consideration in terms of software development resources. But we are also continuing to develop software for Nintendo Switch, and will announce more about our upcoming software lineup at the Nintendo Direct scheduled in June.”
It should be noted that they will have big releases in May and June, but everything after that is a mystery. Furukawa further noted that the Switch successor is NOT going to have a hand in the fiscal sales year nor the company’s projections for it, reiterating that it likely won’t come out until at least April of 2025.
As with the rest of the industry, expansion has been something on Nintendo’s mind. However, Furukawa made it clear that the company’s biggest goal was to build up its employee numbers in a natural way and ensure they know about the “Nintendo Brand.” Furthermore, they’re putting more assets into setting beyond video games to help elevate the brand as a whole:
“In regards to “building software assets,” investments in visual content, which is entertainment other than video games, are currently taking precedence in our cash utilization. However, in the future, there may also be video game-related investments, and it is possible that this will have something to do with the successor to Nintendo Switch.”
Given their success in the movie and theme park areas, it makes sense that they want to keep using other metrics to elevate themselves. But, they also know that the Switch successor is something they’ll need to keep cranking out games for, and thus, they might look at bringing more people into the full should the opportunity arise.
