Nintendo’s official announcement of the Switch 2 did not earn a unanimous reaction from the stock markets.
As reported by GameRant, the opening of the New York Stock Exchange saw Nintendo’s stock go up to $ 15.77, the highest trading value it has reached in the last year.
However, Nikkei revealed that the Tokyo Stock Exchange had the opposite reaction. Nintendo’s stock value dropped to ¥ 8,898, down 7.2 % from the previous day. Dr. Serkan Toto, a consultant for the Japanese game industry, shared another update from Japan a few hours afterwards:
“It is a bit better at -5% currently (Friday afternoon in Tokyo) but yes, the stock is in bad shape today in Japan after the rise yesterday in the US for Nintendo.”
It’s a stark reminder that even as Nintendo would want to create hype for their console among fans and the gaming press, the Switch 2 is bigger than making gamers happy. There are millions of dollars at stake in it, and that isn’t just money to make investors happy, either. The livelihoods of thousands of people in the video game industry are on the line when video game platforms sink or swim.
Subsequently, the failure of one platform does not necessarily lead to the success of its peers. For consumers, video games are a hobby, but for the people in the business, keeping customers engaged is what ultimately brings food to their tables. Investors take their money to where money can be reliably made, and that money is made by the people who actually make games for a living.
A report from last year revealed that TOSE was hoping for the Switch 2 to help turn their business around. TOSE is a veteran Japanese studio famous not for its own original IP, but for being one of the oldest and biggest outsourcing video game companies for bigger AAA developers, like Capcom and Konami. More recently, TOSE reported an improvement to their business, but it’s very telling which company they were looking for for help while they were struggling.
We won’t play analyst here on why the US and Japanese stock markets reacted differently, but of course, Nintendo will want everyone to be on the same page on being upbeat for the Switch 2. Nintendo may have been forced to make this reveal earlier than they wanted, but they still hold a few secrets close to their chest. So that upcoming Switch 2 Direct this April will be their opportunity for a proper reveal of the bigger picture. Hopefully, Nintendo makes a better case for the console that will make everyone happy.
