Japan’s Nintendo mentioned on Tuesday it plans to make an announcement concerning the successor to its long-lasting Swap console through the monetary 12 months ending March 2025.
Nintendo has prolonged the lifecycle of the Swap gadget with hit titles akin to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with the market targeted on the prospects for a clean transition to next-generation {hardware}.
The Kyoto-based gaming firm mentioned it expects to promote 13.5 million Swap models within the present monetary 12 months because it tries to squeeze additional gross sales from the ageing gadget.
Nintendo didn’t provide additional particulars on new {hardware}, saying that there can be no disclosure at its Nintendo Direct presentation in June.
“A variety of customers will now maintain off shopping for the present Swap as they know that the brand new mannequin will come out a while in 2025,” mentioned Serkan Toto, founding father of the Kantan Video games consultancy.
Nintendo final 12 months bought 15.7 million models of the hybrid home-portable gadget, which launched in March 2017. Nintendo lifted its full-year forecast to 15.5 million models in February.
The corporate has made incremental modifications to its Swap units, with gross sales of the OLED mannequin rising year-on-year at the same time as broader {hardware} gross sales continued their annual decline.
Nintendo expects working revenue to fall this 12 months by round 1 / 4 to JPY 400 billion ($2.6 billion or roughly Rs. 21,713 crore).
The corporate is seen as having a skinny pipeline because it holds again heavy-hitting titles for the successor gadget with introduced titles together with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Yr Door later this month and Luigi’s Mansion 2 in June.
Nintendo expects to promote 165 million software program models this 12 months, which might be a 17 % decline on the 12 months earlier.
“The event of video games has turn into extra refined, long run and complicated,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa mentioned when requested how the market has modified for the reason that Swap launched.
Within the 12 months ended March working revenue grew 4.9 % to JPY 528.9 billion.
Nintendo’s shares closed up 2.Four % forward of earnings and are up 5.Four % this 12 months after a latest sell-off.
“Fiscal 2026 is a really late launch window for brand spanking new {hardware},” mentioned Toto.
© Thomson Reuters 2024
