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With the hybrid home-portable Switch nearing its eighth year on
the market, expectations are rising that Nintendo will release
new hardware this year.
"We want to maintain the momentum of the Switch business,"
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told an earnings briefing.
The Kyoto-based gaming company sold 13.74 million Switch units
in the first nine months of the financial year, an 8% decline on
the same period a year earlier.
The lifecycle of the Switch has been extended by a string of
hits such as "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom", which
launched last May, and "Super Mario Bros. Wonder", which went on
sale in October and has sold more than 10 million units.
The Switch, whose iterations include the handheld only Switch
Lite and a version with an OLED display, followed the poorly
performing Wii U and has total sales second only to the Nintendo
DS handheld after passing the Wii.
Nintendo reported a record net profit of 408 billion yen for the
April-December period.
"There will be new Switch games for a while for sure,
considering the current model's massive install base," said
Serkan Toto, founder of game industry consultancy Kantan Games,
who expects a successor device to launch later this year priced
at around $400.
Nintendo shares closed down 0.5% ahead of earnings and have
gained 14% year-to-date.
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Kim Coghill and Christopher
Cushing)
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