Nintendo has not had the best support from third-party studios over the years, dating all the way back to the N64 and Gamecube. This was most noticeable with the Wii U, with major companies skipping out on the console due to its lack of power, low sales and odd tablet controller. Nintendo is looking for things to change with the Switch, aiming to sell 10 million consoles by the end of the console’s first year on the market.
This information comes from a transcription of a shareholders meeting, posted on the Nintendo website. While there are a number of questions regarding business decisions and stock values, there are some interesting bits of information for gamers.
For instance, one person mentions how the NES and SNES both had thousands of games developed for them, while the Wii U only had a few hundred. Nintendo’s president, Tatsumi Kimishima, responded by saying the company needs to do better at attracting third-party developers to Nintendo consoles.
“Software publishers determine whether to develop for a video game system based on its momentum. With this in mind, we are planning to sell 10 million units of Nintendo Switch hardware during this fiscal year,” Kimishima said. “If we can sell 10 million units in one year, then software publishers will feel more at ease about investing in development for Nintendo Switch. Therefore, we hope to achieve our unit sales plans for this fiscal year and gain the support of even more software publishers.”
Interestingly, Nintendo seems to be dancing around the topic of 3DS support and what the company plans to do in the future regarding portable gaming. When asked about balancing Switch and 3DS releases, Kimishima said the company is waiting to see what customers want.
“We will consider a variety of elements, including consumer desires, as we determine our future direction,” he said. “I think that there are many Nintendo 3DS owners who also wish to play Nintendo Switch, so we hope to provide as many different ways to play as possible for both our home console and handheld systems.”
When asked about video content, such as the Kirby animated series, and if there are other plans in the works, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto said there may be interest in making more. “When we brought that series to Europe, it had a very positive impact on sales of Kirby titles in certain parts of Europe. I am aware that our video properties could allow us to expand into quite a few countries where we are not already selling our dedicated video game systems,” he said. “I would be interested in more actively pursuing the development of these kinds of videos going forward.”
Other noteworthy topics in the meeting included Nintendo’s plans for theme parks (no new details were mentioned) and that the company does not plan to open any new retail stores outside of the Nintendo World Store in New York City.
So what do you think? Are you interested to see if Nintendo can sell 10 million Switch consoles in one year? Do you think that will be enough to attract third-party developer support? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
