Nintendo Investor Briefing (Apr. 2018) – Kimishima on Nintendo Switch’s third-party developers and indies

During the latest Nintendo Investor Briefing, Tatsumi Kimishima talked at great lengths about the Nintendo Switch, and more precisely games from third-party publishers and indies.

On Nintendo Switch, we have publishers usually not on Nintendo platforms actually release games for it. That’s the case of Bethesda for example, that brought The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Tatsumi Kimishima explained that when those publishers release their games for the Nintendo Switch, they see their sales “grow”.

And the interesting thing is that this actually applies to games that were previously released on other platforms, that people (re)discover on Nintendo Switch. He mentioned that players are experiencing “new ways to have fun when those titles are combined with the unique Hardware features” of the console. He’s obviously referring to the ability to play anywhere, as well as the local multiplayer capabilities here.

But that’s not all: he also explained that the same publishers mentioned above are currently “preparing new ideas for consumers who purchased Nintendo Switch so they could enjoy these types of titles.”

Thanks to the early available of development tools, a wide variety of publishers of all sizes and from all regions have been onboard from the beginning. As a result, the number of games available for purchase on the Nintendo eShop has recently passed 600: this is 10 times more than during the first year on Nintendo 3DS.

For Tatsumi Kimishima, there’s no doubt about it: this is the “expression of how the new approach of Nintendo Switch is resonating with publishers around the world.” Naturally, Nintendo expects this trend to continue, and with the amount of games being released on the Nintendo eShop weekly, it definitely looks that way!

According to Tatsumi Kimishima, indies have truly “realized ideas that utilize the special features of the Nintendo Switch hardware”, which earned them praise from players and critics alike.

He then mentioned several indie games that have topped the download charts worldwide:

• Rocket League (also available at retail)
• Stardew Valley: nearing 1 million units sold worldwide
• Overcooked: Special Edition: over 500 000 units sold worldwide

The thing is, those three games were already available on other platforms before, but since they fit well with the “anytime, anywhere, with anyone” concept of the Nintendo Switch, they’ve been pretty successful… it did help that they’re all pretty good games, too!

In Europe and North America, indie games have a strong presence, which isn’t quite the case in Japan, where works needs to be done in order to expand awareness of indie titles.

For Tatsumi Kimishima, Nintendo’s mission is pretty simple:

We want to give as many consumers as possible the chance to find the kinds of games they have always wanted to play. By expanding the game genres and increasing the number of game titles, we anticipate more interest from consumers who originally had little interest in Nintendo platforms.

Source: Nintendo