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Kimishima on Switch’s stock woes, maintaining Wii-like momentum, third-parties, eSports, more

DaSorcerer7

DaSorcerer7

Member
Oct 26, 2017
151
Uk
Nintendo Switch sales have been favorable since the beginning for both hardware and software, but it remains difficult to purchase the hardware, and now ahead of the holiday season it seems that inventory levels are unusually low. What are your thoughts at present about what the bottlenecks are in the production system, and what are you thinking about ways to increase or decrease production volume in the future?

Kimishima: Even though the Nintendo Switch launch was in March (and not during the holiday season), we had planned at the start of this fiscal year to ship 10 million units of hardware by the end of March 2018, based on our understanding of the high level of interest from so many consumers Six Months Financial Results Briefing for Fiscal Year Ending March 2018 Nintendo Co., Ltd. before the launch. The 10 million target was a very high figure, and we simply didnʼt think such a high-volume sales target was easy to meet. However, weʼve continued to receive favorable consumer response after launch and inventories remained low, and I think we must own up to the fact that our initial projections were too conservative. The Nintendo Switch system itself is made from a huge number of components, and weʼve made urgent requests to many of our contract manufacturer to ramp up production, with some of them even installing additional production lines. We released yesterdayʼs upwardly revised full-year hardware shipment target of 14 million units because we now project that we are capable of shipping that many units. This 14-million-unit shipping target for the full year means that we plan to ship roughly 10 million units just in the second half of this fiscal year, and production at this pace would manufacture even more than that. For instance, just splitting those 10 million units across six months translates to over 1.6 million units shipped per month going forward, with the production capacity being more than that. I think you can tell from recent Nintendo Switch sales trends that shipments are improving. I think we are ready and able to deliver Nintendo Switch to our many consumers around the world this holiday season.
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More at the link:Nintendo Everything

Nintendo Q2 finanacials Q&A in English
 
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Deeke

Deeke

Member
Oct 25, 2017
966
United States
Nice. Nintendo confirms monthly Switch ramp up and boosted production contract. Sadly Samsung says NAND will be limited through Q4 and beyond.
 
Zedark

Zedark

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,719
The Netherlands
Sounds good. Nice to hear confirmation that production is over 1.6 million, quite possibly the 2 million that was rumoured a while ago. It should be noted that Kimishima isn't saying they are shipping only 1.6 million every month since September: it's just an example to show how big the difference is with what it was before.
 
Dr. Dre's Dr.

Dr. Dre's Dr.

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
976
I don't know if I walked into a bunch of stores right after a large stocking but I was in VA last week and I saw Switches everywhere. Grey, Neon, and even the limited Red which I was very surprised about. I know they are going to be all gone from Thanksgiving through Christmas but it made me wonder if they started to catch up with demand a bit. I looked for SNES classics and no dice there and I was also curious to see if anyone dropped the XBox One X early by accident and no luck there either, but that was just a passing curiosity. I don't have the money to buy it.
 
WestEgg

WestEgg

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,047
Sounds like the supply is going to be there for the Holidays. Lots of happy kids with Switch's under their Christmas Trees.
 
Hobbesian Thudercat

Hobbesian Thudercat

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
3,723
Not interested in the machine, but I've checked the entertainment section at my local Target every time I've been there the passed few months and I always see a few Switches there. Anecdotal of course, but I haven't gotten the impression that the Switch was very hard to find outside the first few months.
 

Deleted member 3017

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
17,653
Hobbesian Thudercat said:
Not interested in the machine, but I've checked the entertainment section at my local Target every time I've been there the passed few months and I always see a few Switches there. Anecdotal of course, but I haven't gotten the impression that the Switch was very hard to find outside the first few months.
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It's been relatively easy to locate a Switch in NA since early September.
 
Nintendojitsu

Nintendojitsu

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,183
Brooklyn, NY
tenor.gif
 
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,199
Call me when I can buy one on Amazon for under 40,000円 or not have to make a reservation in store.
 
Feral Gingy

Feral Gingy

Member
Oct 30, 2017
378
Finland
I'm just baffled by the absolutely incredible turnaround Nintendo has managed to do from the Wii U.

And so fast too!

Good job Nintendo!
 
Jaded Alyx

Jaded Alyx

Member
Oct 25, 2017
35,378
Hobbesian Thudercat said:
Not interested in the machine, but I've checked the entertainment section at my local Target every time I've been there the passed few months and I always see a few Switches there. Anecdotal of course, but I haven't gotten the impression that the Switch was very hard to find outside the first few months.
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The question was basically relating to Japan.
 
Tebunker

Tebunker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,844
Dr. Dre's Dr. said:
I don't know if I walked into a bunch of stores right after a large stocking but I was in VA last week and I saw Switches everywhere. Grey, Neon, and even the limited Red which I was very surprised about. I know they are going to be all gone from Thanksgiving through Christmas but it made me wonder if they started to catch up with demand a bit. I looked for SNES classics and no dice there and I was also curious to see if anyone dropped the XBox One X early by accident and no luck there either, but that was just a passing curiosity. I don't have the money to buy it.
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Yeah I'd say they have finally gotten stock in to the channel. Over the last month they've been able to keep reasonable stock levels in retail.

That's actually a good thing going in to shopping season.

You have to remember a lot of the discussion at investor q&a are about past events and what is happening or will happen to in order to adjust. As wel they are very Japan focused. So we are now in the phase of Nintendo's inventory correction taking hold.

It will be interesting to see how they sell in November and December.
 
MadnB

MadnB

Member
Oct 25, 2017
354
Nintendo is constantly thinking of ways to offer more entertaining experiences so that even
more consumers will enjoy the Nintendo Switch for a long time. We have formulated both
medium- and long-term plans, but at the same time we are also considering contingency plans
in case those original plans do not come to fruition.
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It seems to me they are also considering the rate at which third parties will hop on with support, and react in consequence. Kind of how they left november to Bethesda
 
Infinity Times Two

Infinity Times Two

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,105
Sweden
With their digital sales skyrocketing, I really hope that Nintendo realises they need to invest more into their services. Especially if people are gonna start paying for some of it next year.
 
UntemperedLink

UntemperedLink

Member
Oct 27, 2017
107
In Nintendoʼs position as a platform manufacturer, its dedicated video game platform business
generates income received from third-party developers to produce games on the Nintendo
platform, in the form of fees for contracted manufacturing. However, for smart devices, Nintendo
pays some of its revenues as fees to Apple and Google. Please tell us about your thoughts on the
future, and whether Nintendo might become a platform provider for its own smart-device
applications.
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My favourite question comes from the guy who wants Nintendo to compete with Google Play and the App Store on smart devices.
 

SwitchedOff

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,516
The Switch is seemingly soaring and that's great news, I am though still wondering when Nintendo are going to allow us to backup our save game data ..........
 
Principate

Principate

Member
Oct 31, 2017
11,186
Infinity Times Two said:
They made it alot harder for themselves by not having it ready for launch.

Now people are gonna get used to playing online for free, for some an entire year or more. They better deliver...
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I'm imagining they're planning a PS+ like move with "free" games to justfy the costs. I would say more aggressive but it's nintendo so it probably wouldn't be more aggressive.
 
MadnB

MadnB

Member
Oct 25, 2017
354
For example, in the e-sports world right now,
winners generally receive some form of compensation. Weʼve been engaging in various activities
to get everyone to have a Nintendo kind of experience using our own competitive games, and
weʼve been thinking a lot about quite what kind of reward would make winners happy.
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I'm pretty sure winners would be happy with prize money
 

Deleted member 62

Guest
"The shift to for-pay for the Nintendo Switch Online service was originally planned to begin in the autumn of 2017, but we pushed that back into 2018. With the paid online service starting, we are taking time to prepare services that offer our consumers greater satisfaction. We cannot announce anything specific at this time, but in essence, the shift to for-pay will allow us to provide better services to our consumers."

I wonder what could change there. As of right now, their online system is a bit barebones, but I cannot really see them expand these services.
 
ILikeFeet

ILikeFeet

DF Deet Master
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
61,987
cloud saves would be something that would be enticing, especially since you cant transfer saves. they already announced classic games with online, but having a Netflix-style VC (in addition to the non-subscription pay once games) would also make the $20 much more worth it
 
Zelretch

Zelretch

Member
Oct 25, 2017
621
Very interesting the questions regarding the chinese market, i like that Nintendo is aware they need a partner to break into it. If they are able to partner with Tencent Nintendo could go huge there imo.
 

Arkan3n

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8
honestly, Im not sure if Nintendo has any special plans for the holiday season(for stocking the Switch) that is different from any other month. Yes, the system will be in demand more that month... but it doesnt seem like Nintendo plans to change their shipping schedule to meet the increased demand during the holiday. Maybe Im wrong?
 
Skittzo

Skittzo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
41,037
"Nearly" 10 million shipped in the second half of the FY would give them 17.6M at the end of the FY, which is a bit above the projected 16.7. I wonder if he threw out "nearly 10 million" to mean 9 million or if they're expecting to actually exceed that 14 million unit forecast for the FY by nearly 1 million.
 
Hero

Hero

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,794
HistoricalAnomaly said:
Bruh the biggest game on the Switch released four days before November, they did not "leave November" to Bethesda.
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The day that Skyrim is coming out is one of the most important dates for the holiday season and dates even back to the GameCube days as the period where Nintendo would launch their "must-have" title for the holidays.

Mario releasing before November (even if it's just a few days) and Nintendo not releasing another game this month is an absolutely strategic move by Nintendo, most likely as part of Bethesda's willingness to support the Switch with DOOM/Skyrim/Wolfenstein.
 
ghostship

ghostship

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Oct 27, 2017
262
Arkan3n said:
honestly, Im not sure if Nintendo has any special plans for the holiday season(for stocking the Switch) that is different from any other month. Yes, the system will be in demand more that month... but it doesnt seem like Nintendo plans to change their shipping schedule to meet the increased demand during the holiday. Maybe Im wrong?
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As Kimishima notes in the linked Q&A, they plan to ship 10 million units for the second half of the financial year (in comparison, they shipped 4.89 million units for the first half). The bulk of these will no doubt be delivered for the holiday season. I also saw a claim that they'd be doing air shipments again for the holidays like they did at launch, though I forget where now.
 
AgeEighty

AgeEighty

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,418
I mean, it's not like they were wrong to have conservative sales estimates based on how the Wii U performed.

It's much less catastrophic for them to have high demand and low supply than high supply and low demand.
 
Hero

Hero

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,794
ghostship said:
As Kimishima notes in the linked Q&A, they plan to ship 10 million units for the second half of the financial year (in comparison, they shipped 4.89 million units for the first half). The bulk of these will no doubt be delivered for the holiday season. I also saw a claim that they'd be doing air shipments again for the holidays like they did at launch, though I forget where now.
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Pretty sure ZhugeEX commented that Nintendo said they were doing air shipments for the holiday season.
 
ccieag

ccieag

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,339
Vail, CO
14M in year one is pretty damned exceptional. At this rate, Nintendo might conceivably catch MS with very little issue
 
StrikeFirst117

StrikeFirst117

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,234
UK NW
Its going to be an interesting holiday congrats to Nintendo for turning this around.
The lineup this year has been pretty damn good and it'll interesting to see the numbers from this, 14 Million doesn't look like a pipe dream at this point especially with them doing air shipments again.
 
Abrasion Test

Abrasion Test

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Oct 27, 2017
1,770
I hope we're not in for a major software drought early next year. It doesn't seem like they're going to maintain the current software release cadence in 2018.
 

Deleted member 3017

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Level 9 CPU said:
It doesn't seem like they're going to maintain the current software release cadence in 2018.
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If that were the case, Xenoblade 2 wouldn't be launching next month. They don't need that game this fall. It could easily be pushed into early 2018 to pad out the release schedule if they had a drought coming.

My guess is January will be light, then from February on, the Switch software train will keep on rolling.
 

ramadden13

Member
Oct 28, 2017
51
Level 9 CPU said:
I hope we're not in for a major software drought early next year. It doesn't seem like they're going to maintain the current software release cadence in 2018.
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I think it's too early to say. If they don't have a big December/January (probably January) direct, then this is right. But we didn't know about the 2017 software schedule until January of this year. Nintendo seems to be going for shorter announcement to release time frames than Sony/Microsoft.
 
Dekuman

Dekuman

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Oct 27, 2017
19,026
Level 9 CPU said:
I hope we're not in for a major software drought early next year. It doesn't seem like they're going to maintain the current software release cadence in 2018.
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Anything can happen, but scheduling the big SE exclusive RPG for Spring 2018 tells you alot. Besides, they've barely announced any true 2018 fall titles.
I think they are in a very good place, but I generally agree they can't internally maintain 2017 level of software output, and thankfully, the 'soft launch' that so many gamers railed against has given 3rd parties and especially indies some time to ramp up and add Switch to their platform list.
 
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