[아주 돋보기] Nintendo poured out a new work in two years… Aiming for’everything’ sales by gathering fan base

Nintendo plans to once again aim to renew its sales of’everything’ by holding this large-scale new release event. Nintendo achieved an operating profit of 229.7 billion yen (about 2.449 trillion won) in the fourth quarter of last year. This significantly exceeds Bloomberg’s forecast of 1896 billion yen, the largest quarterly operating profit since 2008. Sales were 634.9 billion yen and net profit was 163.5 billion yen, up 9.7% and 22% respectively from the same period last year.

The secret of Nintendo’s earning surprise is the video game console’Switch’ and’Corona 19 Special’. In the early 2010s, Nintendo’s video game consoles and games were pushed by smartphones and mobile games and had to be evaluated as’out of date’. As evidenced by this, in 2011, it made an operating loss.

However, in March 2017, Nintendo made a comeback by releasing the’Nintendo Switch’, which combines the advantages of a stationary and portable game console. Switch with a 6.2-inch screen is a video game where you can literally enjoy games while changing places, and can also be used by connecting to a TV or monitor. You can play games by connecting to a TV at home, and enjoy games like a smartphone outside the house.

Following Japan, the switch became popular in North America, Europe, and Australia, and sold 11.6 million units in the fourth quarter of last year, four years after its launch. As the cumulative sales volume reaches 80 million units, it is believed that the sales volume will exceed 100 million units this year. Bloomberg said, “Last year, Sony and Microsoft (MS) released new game consoles, but the Nintendo Switch overpowered them.”

Here, as the time to stay at home increased due to Corona 19, the Nintendo Switch benefited greatly from Corona. The Financial Times evaluated that “Animal Forest, a game exclusively for Nintendo Switch, was released at the perfect timing of the Corona Pandemic.” A Nintendo spokesman also told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), “In a situation where everyone suffers from the corona crisis, people seem to be looking for some kind of escape from reality.” In the quarter, the entire home entertainment business was good.”

In the game industry, Nintendo believes that through this Nintendo Direct, which unveiled its game lineup in the first half of this year, it is trying to gather its own loyal fan base equal to that of Apple enthusiasts, and to solidify its leading position in the entire game industry beyond the video game industry. According to Channel News Asia (CNA), Nintendo expects an operating profit of 400 billion yen by March.