Nintendo's digital software sales have grown remarkably over the years — and the same can be said for all of the big publishers. But in terms of where the Big N's focus lies, it's not dedicating itself to a digital-only future.
During the financial results briefing for FY2024, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa responded to a question about the growth of digital media and the expectations the company have for the "successor to Nintendo Switch" which was announced early this week.
Furakawa recognises how the industry has shifted since the release of the Nintendo Switch, and that "the expanded scale of our digital business can be cited as one of the major changes" for the company. But even with this, Nintendo is adamant that it's not going to be solely focusing on digital sales, but physical media too:
"Our objective is not to simply increase the share of digital sales, but to maximize overall game software sales, including sales of physical software. This policy will remain unchanged going forward."
Surely, a reassuring thing to read for those of us who value physical media — especially in a market that has skewed heavily in digital media sales' favour.
To maintain this, Furukawa says that Nintendo will "need to enhance user-friendliness for both consumers who play packaged software and those who play download versions. Going forward, we intend to keep working on improvements to devise better solutions." The approach seems to be, then, that digital and physical media will not be treated too differently.