Nintendo on pushing for 20 million Switch units sold this fiscal year, using DLC, Switch Online, and mobile games to remain profitable

Coming from Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa during an investor Q&A...

Based on the results for the first half of this fiscal year, I think we are making good progress towards our projections for the full year. We knew our plan from the start of this fiscal year to sell 20 million Nintendo Switch units (for the fiscal year) was not going to be an easy challenge to meet, but we saw it as a worthy challenge in the second year of hardware sales. As expected, sales during this fiscal year are going to be concentrated in the second half, and we anticipate our sales will really hit their stride during the holiday season.

As for the question of how we can keep profitability trending upward over the long term, given that we are in the entertainment business, that answer will largely depend on whether we release hit products. Even so, there are a few ways we can work towards stabilizing revenues. One of these is the model where we add to revenues through add-on content that is available on and after the release of a major title. And the model where we earn revenues with a service like Nintendo Switch Online, where money is paid continuously at regular intervals. There is also the model where we earn continuous revenues through the operation of smart-device applications as a service. These initiatives will probably still need a lot of time to develop. Although our smart-device business has not yet reached the scale where it can serve as a pillar of revenue, we are steadily laying the groundwork for it to increase the profitability of overall Nintendo business. Looking at things in the long term, I can see these preparations are falling into place.