Nintendo President Remains Confident That Company Will Hit 20 Million Unit Sales for Switch

Since its release in March 2017, the Nintendo Switch has become one of the hottest items in gaming, selling 19.67 million units as of June 2018. With those lofty numbers, also come lofty expectations internally. In the spring, Nintendo upped their sales prediction for the following fiscal year, announcing the iconic Japanese gaming company planned to sell a whopping 20 million units. Only 5 million units were sold during the first half of the current fiscal year, which leaves the company 15 million units away from their goal for the remaining six months. Large, first-party titles such as the Pokémon: Let’s Go duo and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are sure to help move units leading into the Spring 2019 deadline, but many still show concerns on Nintendo meeting the expectations laid before them. Yet, Nintendo of America President and COO Reggie Fils-Aimé remains confident the company will reach the 20 million unit sales goal.

In a recent interview with Forbes, the long-time Nintendo executive felt that coming off of a very successful holiday season, would position them well heading into the end of the their fiscal year. “We’re feeling confident in our momentum and it’s not just a stellar launch of Pokémon, it’s not just what appears to be a stellar launch for Super Smash Bros Ultimate.” Fils-Aimé began with. “That Black Friday through Cyber Monday time frame was critically important to us, the remaining shopping days now through Christmas are important to us. More days right after Christmas as consumers receive gift cards or take unwanted gifts and monetize into things like Nintendo Switch are important to us. So, this is going to be an ongoing effort to make sure that we drive our business forward through the balance of this holiday season but also the first calendar quarter as well.” Nintendo wrapped up a very successful Black Friday weekend this year, with sales of over $250 million; a record for best-selling Nintendo console in U.S history for the five-daay period from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, along with having its best sales weel ever int he U.S.

In a follow up to Fils-Aimé view on where the company’s sales of Nintendo Switch are heading, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter sees another outcome for the company. Patcher believes Nintendo will cap out around 16-17 million units sold by the close of their fiscal year, but doesn’t see this as a hinder to the system’s continued popularity. “The share price tells you that the market doesn’t expect them to hit 20 million (units sold). However, if they sell 15 million per year, they’re in good shape and they shouldn’t see a disruption in their momentum” Pachter emphasizes.

Whether or not Nintendo’s sales predictions is accurate when Spring 2018 rolls around, the Nintendo Switch still is one of the most popular gaming consoles currently available. With a sale trajectory similar to that of the PlayStation 4’s lifetime, I don’t think the momentum for the system will be slowing down anytime soon.

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Nintendo of America President Shuts Down Hopes of a Nintendo 64 Classic Coming Soon

For decades, Nintendo has not only created some of the most endearing characters in gaming, they have also developed some of the most cherished consoles as well. Since the announcement of Nintendo’s line of Classic Consoles, fans have been excited to see which systems come next for the line of mini consoles. With the release of the Super Nintendo Classic (or “Mini”) last years, Nintendo fans started to gather expectations that the company’s 1996 64-bit system, the Nintendo 64, would be getting the “classics” treatment. As the holiday season kicks into its highest gear, not a peep was mentioned by the Japanese gaming company, and now it’s US President has confirmed fans’ worst thoughts.

In an interview speaking with Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo, Nintendo of America’s President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime confirmed what most expected at this point: for right now, there are no plans to rerelease the system. “I would not ever rule something out, but what I can tell you is certainly that’s not in out planning horizon (in regards to the possibility of an Nintendo 64 Classic happening)”, Fils-Aime stated while in New York City last week promoting the company’s holiday 2018 line up. “We were clear when we did the first two Classic series that, for us, these were limited time opportunities that were a way for us as a business to bridge from the conclusion of the Wii U as a hardware system to the launch of the Nintendo Switch.”

The Nintendo Entertainment System, which launched in November 2016, was one of the most sought after products during the holiday season of that year. Many stores sold out of the systems almost instantaneously, with both resellers and fans alike trying to get as many as possible, due to their high demand and low supply. When Nintendo announced the mini system’s successor, the Super Nintendo Class Edition, the company promised fans that the supply & demand issues surrounding the previous console would be resolved, but many fans still had issues securing a copy. In June 2018, Nintendo announced that the NES Classic Edition would be re-released, along with providing more stock of the SNES Classic Edition as well, which seemed to resolve a lot of fan complaints surround the stock.

While fans may not see Nintendo’s first foray into the 3D generation of gaming coming to the Classics line soon, Fils-Aime reassures fans that this puts a level of importance on how the newly released subscription service for the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Online, can meet fans’ nostalgic needs. “We’ve been very clear that as the consumer looks forward to engaging with our classic content is going to happen more and more with the subscription service” Fils-Aime said.

The Nintendo Switch Online service launched in September 2018, that included a library of 20 NES games that had both single player and multiplayer support through online play. Each month, the company has promised that new games will be added to the service, including the recently added Metroid, Twin Bee and Mighty Bomb Jack for November. The service can be purchased in quantities of one month ($3.99), three months ($7.99), 12 months ($19.99), along with a family plan that covers up to eight Nintendo Account holders for 12 months ($34.99).

 

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