Pokemon GO was probably one of the biggest hits this year and have somewhat revived the ailing Nintendo. It's annual report, however, showed that despite Pokemon GO, the company's profits are falling. Thus, it is pinning its hope on the newly announced Switch hoping that the console will once again put Nintendo back to its glory days.
During the launch of the Nintendo Switch, an analyst said that the Nintendo Switch is the company's last shot into the console game. Does this mean that it will also be its last shot in the gaming industry as well considering the fact that it has suffered big losses in the recent years?
Although it enjoyed robust profitability with the Wii console, the introduction of the Wii U was a disaster. The company thought it would have the same popularity as its predecessor but their hopes were crushed when sales of the Wii U is only a tenth of the sales made by the Wii console. This led to the company cutting its full-year revenue and operating income goals for this fiscal year.
According to Nintendo, sales fell by 33 percent for six months to September. Moreover, it also reported a 5.95 billion yen operating loss for the half year, a very sharp loss compared to its 2015 operating profit of 9 billion yen. Even Nintendo shares have fallen to 8 percent for the past month.
Although it made some profit after selling the Seattle Mariners, it is still not what the company has been expecting. With the introduction of the Nintendo Switch, it is planning to ship off 2 million units of the console on its launch hoping that they will be able to bring in one-third of the money it did from selling Wii.
Observers say, however, that two million is still small compared to the 3.6 million Wii U units it deployed during its market launch in 2012 but Nintendo aims to sell the 2 million units in a month after they launch the Switch. Moreover, they are also launching it in March instead of during the holiday season.
This is the very reason why Nintendo doesn't want to reveal the price and the specifications to people. They want people to focus on the beauty of the console hoping that the features and the experience will boost the sales.
