news

한어Русский языкEnglishFrançaisIndonesianSanskrit日本語DeutschPortuguêsΕλληνικάespañolItalianoSuomalainenLatina

The switch has entered its eighth year. Although the successor to the switch has been officially announced, it seems that Nintendo is still full of confidence in the switch, even with a clear decline in sales.

It's a bit difficult to complete the goal

Nintendo recently released its financial report data for the first quarter of this fiscal year (April to June 2024). In this quarter, Nintendo's performance declined in all aspects, with net profit down 55% year-on-year to 80.95 billion yen, operating profit down 71% year-on-year to 54.5 billion yen, and Switch sales down 46% year-on-year, with a total of 2.1 million units sold. However, Nintendo still maintained its annual net profit forecast unchanged at 300 billion yen.The annual sales forecast for Switch remains unchanged at 13.5 million units。

This means that from the next summer to Christmas and then to March next year, Nintendo needs to sell another 11.4 million switches to achieve this forecast. So how difficult is this goal?

There are fewer blockbusters this year than last year

Compared to last year, Switch's total sales were only 15 million units, supported by two blockbuster IPs, The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom of Tears and Super Mario Bros. Marvel. This year, it is clear that Switch does not have games comparable to these two masterpieces to support sales.

Judging from the latest first-party game lineup announced by Nintendo, the second half of this year includes "FC Detective Club Smiley Man Emio", "The Legend of Zelda: Rebirth of Wisdom", "Mario Party: Unparalleled Gala", "Mario & Luigi RPG: Brothers' Flight" and "Donkey Kong Returns HD". Among them, except for "The Legend of Zelda: Rebirth of Wisdom", "Mario Party: Unparalleled Gala" and "Mario & Luigi RPG: Brothers' Flight", the other games are small and unpopular works, which obviously cannot support enough sales. The highly anticipated "Metroid Prime 4" and "Pokémon Legends ZA" will not be released until after the next fiscal year (after March 2025).

Price reduction may be the only way out

So, with the game lineup not exciting enough and players' expectations for Switch 2, what strategy will Nintendo adopt to make up for the sales? Obviously there is only one way, that is to reduce the price!

As we all know, Nintendo is currently the only console manufacturer that can make a lot of money by selling hardware, and even the Switch OLED launched later has a higher profit margin. Some analysts said that the Switch OLED hardware has been using the same specifications for many years, and if the price can be reduced by $50, it will be possible to ignite the sales of Switch OLED again.

Because the lower price can not only attract more new players, but also attract a wave of players who own old switch models to replace them with Switch OLED models. Nintendo can also take the opportunity to stop producing the long-lasting switch and focus on producing Switch OLED, which can effectively save the factory's production costs and improve production efficiency.

The price reduction can further widen the price gap between Nintendo and the two console platforms of Sony and Microsoft, creating an image of low cost and good quality.

Still keeping the big move for the end of the year?

Finally, from the lineup table, we can see that Nintendo has left December, the most important month during the year-end holiday season, blank. Considering the importance of this holiday, Nintendo will definitely not leave it blank, which means that Nintendo has prepared a big move in December. So will it be the legendary "The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD"? Taking advantage of the situation, a new Zelda limited edition switch OLED will be launched, and it will be sold in conjunction with this traditional sales peak season, which will definitely increase the rhythm of sales.