Nintendo has launched a new subsidiary in Taiwan, but there may be more to this news than is apparent on the surface.
We reported last November that Nintendo was suddenly closing their eShop in China. At the time, we focused on the consumer issue of Chinese gamers losing access to their Nintendo games, but most Western press didn’t see the full picture.
As explained in this thread at InstallBaseForum, Nintendo didn’t really have much say in the situation. China was introducing a new set of rules and regulations controlling the video game industry in the country. Because of these rules, Nintendo’s local partner TenCent could no longer provide Nintendo’s services on their behalf.
This included running the eShop, selling and distributing eShop games, and even things as basic as owning Nintendo accounts. At the same time, Nintendo couldn’t find a new company in China to take over TenCent’s work for them. For those who doubt the information in this forum, we did find a Chinese Nintendo fan account corroborated these reasons for Nintendo’s exit on Twitter, citing a news report.
That takes us to today. As shared on the Nintendo subreddit by user Joseki100, Nintendo made this announcement about their new subsidiary:
“In order to further strengthen the business foundation in the Taiwan market and improve the service quality of customers, the company will establish a new local legal person “Taiwan Nintendo Co., Ltd.” as one of the subsidiaries of Nintendo Co., Ltd. Starting from April 1, 2025, we will officially transfer our business in Taiwan to “Taiwan Nintendo Co., Ltd.”, and adhere to the business philosophy of Nintendo Group to continue to promote business development.”
This takes things full circle for Nintendo, as in the late 2010s, Nintendo also tried to do business in Taiwan. Their local partners or employees at the time apparently did not run that business very well, and Taiwanese gamers ended up relying on Japanese imports instead.
At the time, Nintendo also tried to do business in Hong Kong through Taiwan. Because of the many changes China already did to Hong Kong, as well as the aforementioned changes coming to video games in China, the situation will be considerably different for Nintendo today. With all of that said, it is possible that Chinese language Nintendo consoles and games may make their way from Taiwan to China through the grey or black markets. It will all certainly depend on how Taiwan Nintendo Co. Ltd. is successful in doing business.
Interestingly enough, this news comes days after Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa revealed that they arranged to move manufacturing outside of China, contingency plans laid years in advance of the new issues surrounding US tariffs. So clearly we in the West may not have been paying close attention, but Nintendo was definitely already making these key decisions about China, while they were also making plans for the launch of the Switch 2. For better or worse, China may not be a part of the Switch 2’s story, at least not in the near future.
