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Nintendo France talks big Switch preorders, sales goals, the lack of pack-in game and more

by rawmeatcowboy
22 February 2017
GN Version 5.0

The following comes from a Gamekult interview with Nintendo France’s Philippe Lavoue...

- with Switch, Nintendo is seeing pre-orders similar to those of Wii in France
- Nintendo expects to sell 800,000 units this year, which would be the lifetime sales of Wii U
- this includes 95,000 units on day one with a near 100 percent conversion rate with Zelda: Breath of the Wild
- gray is currently more popular than the neon option
- Lavoue thinks things will ultimately shift in the opposite direction
- from a financial perspective, Nintendo just couldn’t include 1-2 Switch in the package
- Zelda: Breath of the Wild being “exceptional” will help Switch
- 1-2-Switch itself is a strong proposition
- while Nintendo would have loved to include a game with Switch, it’s a more expensive console than something like Wii
- Nintendo realized that it needed a strong proposition with Switch
- with Wii U, being able to take a game with you around a room wasn’t enough
- while asymmetric gameplay was a nice idea, it was difficult to get across
- the quick turnaround from Switch reveal to release ultimately came down to the big developers and higher-ups at Nintendo
- working with retailers and distributors wasn’t an issue though due to the confidence these partners had in the console
- Lavoue was quick to point out that Mario Kart Wii sold three million copies in France while Mario Kart 8 is at roughly 350,000
- Lavoue also doesn’t see an issue with Zelda, since pre-orders on Wii U aren’t close at all to Switch
- regarding 3DS, Lavoue believes users of the handheld shouldn’t worry with Switch coming into the picture.
- the first half of 2017’s lineup is better than last year
- believes thinks three million 3DS games as well as 700,000 systems will be sold at a minimum

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