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Nintendo Financials (May 2024): results and highlights, Investors Briefing, Q&A

Lite_Agent

Nintendo have shared their latest financial results, covering the period ended March 2024 (April 1st 2023 to March 31st 2024). You will find all the details on these pages:

  • Consolidated Financial Highlights, with consolidated operating results, the forecast for the current Fiscal Year, Nintendo comments, sales information (regional breakdown, digital sales), sales data and forecast, and more
  • Financial Results Explanatory Material, with lots of additional sales data, list of million-sellers this Fiscal Year, release planning, and more

Some highlights:

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  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has now sold 20.61 million units worldwide (+330,000 units during Q4).
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder has now sold 13.44 million units (+1.48 million units during Q4).
  • Pikmin 4 has now sold 3.48 million units (+180,000 units during Q4).
  • As previously mentioned, the release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie had a noticeable impact on the sales of Mario games.
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 8.18 million units during the past FY (+1.39 million units during Q4), bringing total sales to 61.97 million units.
  • A total of 31 games (1st and 3rd-party) sold over 1 million units during the past Fiscal Year.
  • Nintendo Switch (Hardware) sold 15.70 million units (-12.6% Year on Year).
  • Nintendo Switch (Software) sold 199.67 million units (-6.7% Year on Year).
  • Digital sales reached 443.3 billion Yen (+9.4%), with good sales for the downloadable versions of retail games and DLC and increased Nintendo Switch Online sales. The depreciations of the Yen also helped.
  • Mobile + IP business saw its sales jump to 92.7 billion Yen (+81.6%), mainly thanks to The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
  • Nintendo’s strategy for current Fiscal Year remains unchanged: try to put several Nintendo Switch system in every home (or even one for every person) in order to boost Nintendo Switch sales. The company is also planning to keep releasing new games and DLC to keep players engaged (Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door in May, Luigi’s Mansion 2HD in June,and more).
  • The Nintendo Museum at the Uji Plant will open this Fall.

Here’s sales data for some games (courtesy of Mazi):

  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 61.97M (+1.39M)
  • Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 45.36M (+570K)
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 34.22M (+550K)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 31.85M (+240K)
  • Super Mario Odyssey – 27.96M (+310K)
  • Pokémon Sword and Shield – 26.27M (+100K)
  • Pokémon Scarlet and Violet – 24.92M (+560K)
  • Super Mario Party – 20.66M (+320K)
  • The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – 20.61M (+330K)
  • New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe – 17.45M (+250K)
  • Luigi’s Mansion 3 – 14.25M (+270K)
  • Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury – 13.47M (+300K)
  • Super Mario Bros. Wonder – 13.44M (+1.48M)
  • Nintendo Switch Sports – 13.11M (+630K)
  • Mario Party Superstars – 12.89M (+580K)
  • Splatoon 3 – 11.96M (+250K)
  • Kirby and the Forgotten Land – 7.52M (+560K since September 2023)
  • Pikmin 4 – 3.48M (+150K)
  • Super Mario RPG – 3.31M (+170K)
  • Princess Peach: Showtime! – 1.22M
  • Mario vs. Donkey Kong – 1.12M

Also, the following pages have also been updated:

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Top Selling Title Sales Units: Top 10 Software for each platforms:

Nintendo Financials – Briefing

The transcript of the briefing can be found on this page!

Nintendo Financials – Q&A

The transcript of the Q&A session is now available in English. Here’s the list of questions:

Question 1: I’d like to hear your thoughts about your game software development resources. You will be announcing your software lineup for the second half of 2024 in a Nintendo Direct in June but judging by the first half, the lineup seems weaker than usual. Have much of your development resources already been shifted to the successor to Nintendo Switch? I’d also like to hear about your long-term strategy for expanding your development resources.

Question 2: Looking at the hardware sales forecast for the current fiscal year (ending March 2025), if the forecast does not include sales of the successor to Nintendo Switch, it seems like the numbers are not that much lower than the previous fiscal year (ended March 2024). Are you thinking that announcing a successor system will not affect the momentum of the Nintendo Switch business?

Question 3: I’d like to hear about the relationship between cash utilization, which you mentioned in past Corporate Management Policy Briefings, and the successor to Nintendo Switch. The existence of the successor to Nintendo Switch had not been announced at the time of the Corporate Management Policy Briefing last November, so I imagine it would have been difficult to describe cash utilization in relation to it. But did the amount of cash utilization explained at the time also include the investment related to the successor system? One of the fields you define for cash utilization is “foundation for maintaining and expanding relationships with consumers,” and your Nintendo Account initiatives are included in this field. Will you continue to make active use of Nintendo Account with the successor to Nintendo Switch?

Question 4: I think one big change over the lifecycle of Nintendo Switch is the remarkable growth in digital sales. Looking back at the progress of the digital business and its contribution to financial results thus far, I would like to know what expectations you have for the digital business over the lifecycle of the successor to Nintendo Switch.

Question 5: For hardware sales, the forecast of 13.5 million units for this fiscal year seems like an aggressive target, given the sales figures for Q4 of the previous fiscal year. What initiatives do you have in mind to achieve this? Regarding hardware supply, you had said before that when new hardware is released, you would like to manufacture and ship units in sufficient quantities to satisfy consumer demand, as a countermeasure against reselling. Given the recent improvements in the semiconductor market, do you think it is likely that you would be able to ship enough units of the successor to Nintendo Switch to meet the demand, right from the time of launch?

Question 6: Regarding the successor to Nintendo Switch, is there any special intention behind calling it a “successor?” Looking back at past hardware announcements, Wii U was described as a “system to succeed Wii,” and Nintendo Switch as a “game platform with a brand-new concept.” This time it is described as a “successor to Nintendo Switch.” Is this an indication of your intent to continue with the gameplay and concept of Nintendo Switch? You said there will be an update during this fiscal year. At that time, will you talk about its launch timing and specifications?

Question 7: Nintendo has announced its expected operating profit for the current fiscal year to be 400 billion yen. The fact that you can forecast this much profit during what is largely a hardware transition period can suggest that the base profit level of the company has risen. Before the release of Nintendo Switch, I recall a time when the market was anticipating an operating profit of over 100 billion yen as a “Nintendo-like profit.” I’m sure a lot has changed in the seven years since the release of Nintendo Switch, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on what constitutes a “Nintendo-like profit.”

Question 8: I think that using The Super Mario Bros. Movie to expand awareness of Nintendo IP even in regions where Nintendo Switch is not available for purchase was a highly effective measure. I understand that a movie in general requires a long production time and involves a sizable investment. Going forward, is there a possibility of using smaller scale visual content, such as animated series or short videos, to expand the number of people who have access to Nintendo IP?

Question 9: I understand that Nintendo uses “annual playing users” as an important indicator. This indicator has continued to grow since it was first disclosed, even after Nintendo Switch hardware sales have peaked. Do you expect the numbers to dip this fiscal year? Also, will annual playing users continue to be an important indicator for Nintendo even after the release of the successor to Nintendo Switch?

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.