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Investor Briefing (Oct. 2016): official English translation of the Q&A session now available

Lite_Agent ,

Last week, on Thursday, Nintendo met with investors during the usual meeting that follows the presentation of the latest financial results of the company. Just like all past meetings, there were two parts: the presentation by the president of Nintendo Co. Ltd (Tatsumi Kimishima), and the Q&A session. The former was quickly made available in English, while the latter was added to Nintendo’s website on Friday… but only in Japanese.

Good news: the Q&A session is now available in English: you can click here to check it out for yourself. We wrote about it in this post, last week, but it didn’t cover all questions (only the most important ones).

Here’s those covered in the Q&A:

Q1: The people featured in your (Nintendo Switch) introductory video were mostly teens and adults, and the video also included a scene from an eSports event. Who do you see as the target audience for Nintendo Switch? 

Q2: Watching the introductory video of Nintendo Switch, I now expect that Nintendo Switch is likely to have a strong software lineup. To the extent possible, I would like you to confirm how you will leverage the lessons you have learned from your experiences with Wii U, such as how you will setits price. Also, what do you think is the reason that majorthird-party publishers, who did not provide as much support for Wii U, are now willing to support Nintendo Switch?

Q3: Your Financial Highlights document reads “Nintendo Switch offers a wholly new concept,” but from what I saw in the introductory video, the only difference I was able to notice was that I will be able to play existing game franchises such as Zelda, Mario, Mario Kart and Splatoon in other places than today. I would like Mr. Kimishima to share his impressions of his experiences playing the prototype Nintendo Switch himself, including how new it is.

Q4: The amount of profit generated by Pokémon GO for Nintendo was said to be limited, but it appears that the share of profit of entities accounted for using equity method related to The Pokémon Company was over 10 billion yen. I would like to confirm how this affected Nintendoʼs profits; were sales from Pokémon GO itself higher than expected, or was the distribution of Pokémon GO profits from The Pokémon Company greater than expected? 

Q5: Can you tell me about any plans to release Super Mario Run on iOS or Android in China? 

Q6: Watching the introductory video made me feel that Nintendo Switch is a stylish new type of video game system and gave me the impression that it is aimed at hardcore gamers, not children and families, as these demographics were not shown in the video. Should I anticipate that the initial first-party software lineup for Nintendo Switch will consist mainly of titles for hardcore gamers? I would like to hear about your software strategy, as you mentioned earlier today that you want to appeal to all age demographics. 

Q7: In general, I have heard that Pokémon GO has over 500 million downloads and that daily sales are around one billion yen, is that correct? It appears that the share of profit of entities accounted for using equity method was over 10 billion yen in the second quarter. Will we continue to see this level of profit contribution, or was the majority of this due to royalties, only causing a temporary inflation in profits at the time of release? I would like to confirm your profit model with regards to Pokémon GO. 

Q8: How will you link Nintendo Switch with smart devices? Reading the announcement that it will use NVIDIAʼs Tegra, my imagination ran wild, but is your strategy for consumers to become interested in Nintendoʼs IP (through smart devices) and have that lead to the purchase of software (on Nintendo Switch)? Or will they be linked through My Nintendo accounts with point sharing? Would you be able to give any hints about any brand new and completely different ideas which might relate to the hardware design itself, to the extent possible today? 

Q9: President Kimishima, I would like to hear what you think about your companyʼs prospects for the next two to three years and farther into the future. You are proceeding with efforts to expand the gaming population, such as Miitomo and amiibo, but it doesnʼt seem like these efforts have
borne results yet from a financial perspective. Please share any thoughts you have on future prospects and current challenges. 

Q10: For the smart device business, can you tell us why Super Mario Run will be released earlier than Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem, which were announced at the start of this fiscal year? Also, have there been any changes to your mid- to long-term direction for the smart device business due to the success of Pokémon GO? 

Q11: Why did you decide to launch the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition as a new hardware system instead of as Virtual Console titles? Also,how is the Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition positioned in your business strategy against your other hardware, such as Nintendo 2DS and Nintendo Switch? 

Q12: You have confirmed that you are planning to ship two million hardware units for Nintendo Switch (during this fiscal year). Was this the same number planned by the company as of the time when you came up with your original financial forecast? If you have changed the number, what was the reason? What is the rationale behind this two million unit figure, anyway? 

Also, don’t forget to check out our posts about the presentation by the president of Nintendo Co. Ltd:

Lite_Agent

Founder and main writer for Perfectly Nintendo. Tried really hard to find something funny and witty to put here, but had to admit defeat.

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