Kimishima: sales expectations for the Nintendo Switch, possible 3DS successor
Yesterday, Serkan Toto shared some tidbits from a Tatsumi Kimishima interview in the Nikkei, mostly related to the pricing of the Nintendo Switch Online Service. Today, he shared a few more, starting with a rather bold claim from the president of Nintendo.
Tatsumi Kimishima expects the Nintendo Switch to sell about as well as the Wii, since the former also offers a unique way to play games like the latter did. Since the Wii ended up selling over 100 million units, you can see why this is quite the bold claim he made.
He also reiterates that the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo Switch are meant to co-exist. After all, the former is a great device for kids (really affordable, lots of games), and a good entry into gaming.
For Tatsumi Kimishima, the past Fiscal Year was a “bottom” year for Nintendo, and financial performances should improve starting this Fiscal Year. With the Nintendo Switch releasing in March, and various games on smart devices (with more coming in the upcoming months), Nintendo’s future does seem quite brighter than it did in the past couple of years.
Unfortunately, Tatsumi Kimishima didn’t say a word about the movie projects Nintendo is reportedly working on, as he can’t exactly pinpoint when they will be released. Bit quite surprisingly, he did mention the Quality of Life business, that we haven’t heard about in ages. It looks like he will decide what to do with their announced plans sometime in mid-2017.
In another interview, this time with the Kyoto Shimbun, Tatsumi Kimishima mentions a possible successor for the Nintendo 3DS. According to him, there’s both a need and a market for it, though he doesn’t give any actual details (not surprising, since he most definitely avoid saying anything that would have a negative impact on the Nintendo Switch).
About that Nintendo 3DS, Tatsumi Kimishima’s wording implies that Nintendo 3DS successor would be a brand new console, not just another model (like the Nintendo 2DS or New Nintendo 3DS).
That statement from Tatsumi Kimishima is quite interesting, because in an interview with EDGE, Eiji Aonuma explains that the Nintendo Switch doesn’t mean the concept of a dedicated handheld will disappear:
Question: How about speeding up development processes? Does the Switch architecture mean you can unify your handheld and console software teams, enabling you to get games out more quickly?
Aonuma: There’s an element of that, but it doesn’t automatically mean things wil happen more quickly or more easily. Plus, Nintendo 3DS still has plenty of titles in development. The concept of the Switch is that you have a home console that you can take with you on the go, and in that respect it is both home console and handheld, but it doesn’t mean for us that the concept of a dedicated handheld will just disappear.
Naturally, he’s primarily referring to the Nintendo 3DS (which is still going to get games throughout 2017), but it’s unlikely the handheld will last much longer than an additional year.
The Nintendo Switch will be released on March 3rd, worldwide.
Source: Nikkei / Kyoto Shimbun / Edge
Via: Serkan Toto / GinoFelino (NeoGAF)
