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Last week, we shared a tidbit from a Nikkei report on various elements of Nintendo’s business. Today brings us the official English translation of that interview, so we can now share more specific details.

Nikkei had the chance to speak to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa about Nintendo’s business in general, the procurement of semiconductors for Switch production, Switch sales, and so on. You can see a breakdown of the discussion in the excerpts below.

First up, here’s Nintendo’s comment on how the semiconductor situation is going.

Nintendo will continue to sell three [Switch] models: the standard model; the Switch Lite with reduced price, size and features; and the OLED model. We’ll work out the best strategy as we go along. We’re doing our best to procure high-quality products at an appropriate price with an eye toward the next few years.

[Shuntaro Furukawa]

Next up, Furukawa once again said Nintendo has no plans to increase the price of the Switch due to the scarcity of components. This time around, Furukawa offered up two reasons why the Switch price will remain the same.

We’re not considering that (a price increase) at this point, for two reasons. In order to offer unique entertainment to a wide range of customers, we want to avoid pricing people out. Our competition is the variety of entertainment in the world, and we always think about pricing in terms of the value of the fun we offer.

Our products also include software. Nintendo has sold more than 100 million Switch units so far, and it’s important to maintain the momentum of our overall business. Generally speaking, a weak yen makes domestic Switch sales less profitable.

[Shuntaro Furukawa]

Finally, Furukawa shared his outlook for Switch to hit its sales target for this fiscal year.

It’s in its sixth year since its launch. All I can say is that we’ll try to keep up sales at the same pace. Having hit software also gives a boost to hardware. We have a lineup of new games that will allow us to take a crack at meeting our sales forecast, including Splatoon 3 coming out in September and Pokemon [Scarlet and Violet] in November.

[Shuntaro Furukawa]

If you’d like to read the full interview with Mr. Furukawa, you can find it here.

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Comments (3)

sligeach_eire

1+ y ago

Nintendo can more than afford to absorb any increase in cost of production. If anything the price should be cut(after 5 and a half years), but Nintendo will only do that when sales drop dramatically.


kuribo

1+ y ago

Nintendo says no price increase….
Also Nintendo: “Price INCREASE!”

Seriously though, they won’t increase the price. It would only have a net negative effect.


hypnomancy

1+ y ago

I can't believe they'd even talk about price increases. They'd been making a profit off of the Switch since 2017 when it launched. 5 years later it's only become cheaper to produce. Releasing the Oled Switch at a higher price than the original Switch from 2017 was definitely a kick in the face though especially when other products like the Steam Deck came out for nearly the same price :/