Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co stuck to its original target of selling 2 million Switch consoles in the first month after its launch, despite some anticipation the number might be raised because of brisk preorders.
Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima yesterday told reporters that the company is committed to delivering more content for smartphones.
He pointed to how the success of Pokemon Go, a smartphone augmented-reality game, had boosted sales of other Pokemon games, as well as of 3DS handhelds.
That helped Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo, which creates Super Mario games, report a better-than-expected October-December profit of ¥64.7 billion (US$569.5 million at the current exchange rate), more than twice its same-period profit in 2015.
Investors were unimpressed, sending Nintendo stock sinking 3.2 percent in Tokyo trading. The stock had already slipped when the price for the Switch was announced earlier this month.
The Switch, the first major hybrid console-handheld game device, goes on sale on March 3. It costs US$299.99, more expensive than many had hoped.
However, Kimishima said the company did not want to go into the red.
It has been common practice in the past for game makers to keep prices low, even taking a loss on each machine sold, in hopes of boosting sales and making up for the loss later with game software sales.
Interest was growing for Pokemon among young children, including those who had never played the game before, but were now playing with parents who grew up with Pokemon, Kimishima said.
Making Nintendo’s games available on smart devices was also wooing younger players, he said.
“Whether we can get them to buy the second or third game software is our challenge,” Kimishima said.
Nintendo resisted switching to games on cellphones for years, fearing that could erode sales of its own consoles.
However, it made its big push into mobile with Super Mario Run for Apple Inc’s iPhone, which launched late last year.
It has now recorded 78 million downloads, the company said.
Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said he had not anticipated such a strong reception for Pokemon Go because responses were lukewarm when he showed it at events ahead of its launch.
Once it went online, “the reaction was huge,” he said.
“This is so unpredictable,” Miyamoto said. “Smartphones are an important part of our business.”
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