This night, Nintendo held a meeting with its main shareholders, an opportunity for the group to review its economic situation. And even though the Nintendo Switch is on track to win the title of best-selling video game console of all time (ahead of Sony’s PS2), the Japanese giant has been forced to lower its forecasts for the financial year 2024/2025.
No, Nintendo is not going to die
Indeed, it must be said that last night, Nintendo confirmed a drop in its net profit of 59.9% in the first half. Nintendo foresees difficult months to say the least, until the release of course of the one which will succeed the powerful Switch. For several months now, rumors have been intensifying regarding who will have the difficult task of taking over from the hybrid console launched in March 2017, almost 8 years ago.
Thus, for the current financial year (which will end in March 2025), Nintendo is now counting on operating profit objectives falling by 32%, with sales also lower (by 23%). Nintendo is targeting an annual net profit of 300 billion yen (1.8 billion euros), a drop of 39% over one year.
Currently, Nintendo is staying the course with its Switch range, the Japanese group having also increased the number of bundles at the end of the year to boost sales. Over one year, the console saw a drop in sales of around 31%. A drop which also has repercussions on the gaming side, again with a drop of more than 27%. Over the entire year, Nintendo reduced its sales target to 12.5 million machines, compared to 13.5 million previously.
According to numerous sources, the Nintendo Switch 2 should be launched by June 2025, allowing Nintendo to quickly turn things around, with sales which should (normally) explode as soon as the machine is marketed. In all likelihood, Nintendo should therefore not communicate regarding this new machine before the start of next year, so as not to interfere with sales of the Switch for the end of the year. In the meantime, it’s a surprising little connected alarm clock that the Japanese giant has been marketing for a few days: Alarmo.
It remains to be seen what form this long-awaited Nintendo Switch 2 will take, and especially if the Japanese giant will manage to confirm the success established by the current model. Let us remember that after a very popular Super Nintendo, the Japanese group had experienced a certain flop with its Nintendo 64. Ditto a few years later, with an absolutely catastrophic Wii/Wii U transition on the part of Nintendo.
