Transition to the successor as a problem, customer loyalty should cushion

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently said during the investors’ conference on the latest business results that the transition from the Nintendo Switch to the next designated hardware platform is “a major concern” for the company, according to Videogameschronicle.com reported. As such, the company plans to mitigate the risks of the transition with its more than 100 million users by building “long-term relationships” – partly through Nintendo accounts and partly through the use of its intellectual property outside of games.

“We have already announced part of our software roadmap, which will be released by next spring,” said Furukawa. “Unlike in the past, we continue to have a wide range of games to release five years later. That’s because the Nintendo Switch had such a smooth launch that allowed us to concentrate all of our development resources into one platform.”

transition as a hurdle

“However, the question of whether we will be able to transition as smoothly from the Nintendo Switch to the next generation of hardware is a major concern for us. Based on our experience with the Wii, Nintendo DS and other hardware, it is very clear that one of the biggest hurdles is facilitating the transition from one piece of hardware to the next,” says Shuntaro Furukawa.

“To mitigate this risk, we are focused on building long-term relationships with our customers. As we continue to release new software for the Nintendo Switch, we will also offer services that protect Nintendo Accounts and other intellectual property outside of the game software We intend to build a lasting relationship with our customers this way,” the Nintendo president said, according to the report.

Switch continues to be successful, but a successor is being planned

Furukawa previously hinted that some form of backwards compatibility could be used for the next game console to “retain and expand” the more than 100 million Switch users. On Tuesday, Nintendo announced that the Switch sold 23.06 million units in the fiscal year ending March 2022, for total sales since release of 107.6 million units.

That number brings the company closer to the PS2’s record total of 155 million units, according to Videogameschronicle.com, but still represents a 20 percent drop from last year, when Switch sales peaked at 28.83 million units . Officially, the company has stated that it believes the Switch is still in the mid-life stage and is aiming for a sixth year of growth, helped by the new OLED model.

Meanwhile, Nintendo said last May that investing in the Switch’s successor is one of the company’s record annual R&D spending. When the financial figures were presented last November, however, it was said that the concept and timetable for the market launch of the next console are still being discussed internally. According to the report, market researchers expect the successor to the Switch to be at least two years away.