Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has asserted that the company is on target to reach 20 million Switch sales by the end of the financial year, in response to rumors in 2018 that the Switch might not meet this target. For Nintendo, a new Switch console or price cut is not on the agenda, likely thanks to the incredible launch of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate at the end of 2018.
Furukawa’s comments come from an interview with The Sankei News (via Nintendo Everything), in which he was asked about Nintendo’s strategy in the coming years. With increasing reports of new next-generation consoles from rivals PlayStation and Xbox expected to release in 2020, Furukawa has now stamped out rumors of a new Switch console in the near future. “Nintendo Switch is our primary sales objective,” he commented, “and we are not considering a successor or a price cut at this time.”
In addition, Furukawa celebrated the success of first-party Switch games at the end of 2018, after we learned in December last year that over 50% of Switch owners also bought The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8, and Super Mario Odyssey. More recently, according to the Nintendo President, Super Mario Party sold 1.5 million copies, Pokemon: Let’s Go! Eevee and Let’s Go! Pikachu doubled that figure with 3 million copies sold, and finally Super Smash Bros. Ultimate reached 5 million sales.
In response to rumors of declining Switch sales, Reggie Fils-Aime last year also reassured that the Switch’s revenue per user in the US was at a historic high, and that Nintendo is “looking at the overall software revenue that we’re generating” instead of console sales. Moreover, the success of the Nintendo Switch is evident from Walmart’s 2018 sales data, which demonstrated that the Switch was their most-purchased item in California – despite no other consoles or games making this list.
