Nintendo's Market Value Drops By $1 Billion After Animal Crossing Switch Delay

Sheesh, my goodness. It’ll go back up though. Investors are worse than us gamers.

Well, at least they had good reason for it.

Apparently the delay was to avoid extreme crunch time for the developers. Though doubtless the shareholders don't care about that kind of thing anyways.

It's always the investors. It's almost like they don't know that people actually buy things that they want instead of things that just follow trends.

All those investors weren't Banjo fans. That's what really happened

The market runs on feelings and the next shiny new thing it sees

Everyone is all excited about the direct, and I agree it was good but it was a major disappointment to me that AC was delayed and that kinda spoiled everything else.

Those are all things that only investors care about and not fans. I'm glad Nintendo cares more about us than them

I have five games digitally pre-=purchased and pre-installed and it's only June.

• Mario Maker 2
• My Friend Pedro
• Crash Team Racing
• Dragon Quest Builders 2
• Cadence of Hyrule

I still plan on buying:

• Luigi's Mansion 3
• Mario and Sonic at the Olympics
• Astral Chains
• Pokemon Sword and Shield
• The Witcher 3
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3
• Among other titles

So if anyone is worried about their 2019 year with the Switch because of Animal Crossing's delay they need to sell their Switch because they have stopped loving gaming.

Rush it and the game is rubbish investors cry. Delay it to make it good investors cry. You cant win

The market is dumb.

I mean, of course delaying a 10+ million seller out of the holiday season is going to hurt.

Lack of news on a new Switch model(s) was known many weeks ago. Don't know why investors are only reacting to this now - they should be keeping up with the news.

Perhaps the lack of Bayonetta 3 and Metroid Prime 4 news played a part.

Either way, it's disingenuous to suggest that the Animal Crossing delay is primarily to blame.

@Old_Man_Nintendo I would be surprised if any of the investors even had a Switch

List of things stock prices measure well:
1.

I want to make a disgusted face through an emoticon, but I can't make any that expressive. Not only does Nintendo have a year and a half to go before needing to worry about those next gen consoles, online cloud based systems? In a portable console? Ruining the whole appeal of the portability in the first place? For a company being run in a country filled with handheld lovers?

If it is solely Animal Crossing, investors are so damn short sighted they must be blind. Holiday season = Pokemon, Luigi's Mansion. YOU DON'T NEED A THIRD GAME.

Sounds like it's time to buy stock.

The investors are like little roaches, they don't know what they want so they come and go.

@westman98
10+ million is a big of a strong estimate considering New Leaf only sold 7 million on a system that had a hell of a lot more handhelds in the market.

Yeah, let's rush games in order to release them for the holidays! Look at EA, they're doing it all the time and their games are always top quality and they are loved by their public!

It's delayed, not cancelled, so the money will still roll in eventually. Sure, not this Christmas, but evergreen titles from Nintendo are not like movies where it's front loaded. Buy on dips, I say... Nintendo stock will rebound once they realize this.

Oh boo hoo to AC being delayed. Some people would rather have a broken rushed game than a game that's properly fixed and prepped.

Holy, people are really impatient

In representation of all the angry nerds who's only complaint with the Direct is the delay of Animal Crossing, the investors have spoken!

Or bring the completed game out on time and investors will be happy.

@Old_Man_Nintendo
Seems like you have very outdated numbers.

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/software/3ds.html
"Animal Crossing: New Leaf: 12.21 million pcs"

Unless New Horizons is a bad game, I can't see it selling less than that.

They’re all investing in Nook Inc

The most glaring issue was still nothing new about the Nintendo Switch Online service--announce that SNES games were simply coming by the end of the year, and it's a different story.

From a personal perspective, the top game announcement was Ni No Kuni which was already known a day prior. Only The Witcher and The Sinking City excited me from third parties.

Investors that know nothing about games freaking out again. March means animal crossing has no competition (very little comes out in March) and that gives consumers time to recover considering how packed this year has been. Plus consumers still have pocket camp to tide the over. I wish I had a ton of money to throw around willynilly like that. I know money makes the world go round but the way to get it sucks (for companies).

They’re just playing games.

It’s weird because 2019 is still looking tons better than 2018 simply because games are releasing this year and last year was dry as dry bones

@ryancraddock The chart is in Yen not Dollars tho which is actually about $9.5m.

Serves them right!

Oh calm down. AC won't impact on Pokemon sales now. They should rejoice that there's a massive post xmas windfall coming

@westman98
My numbers were almost as old as me so I was a bit off. However there are about 74 million 3DS units in the world, which is more than double that of the Switch. So the Switch is going to have to have over a double attach rate than New Leaf did with the 3DS.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/268966/total-number-of-game-consoles-sold-worldwide-by-console-type/

Investors care about ONE thing and ONLY ONE THING. Money.
It's really simple, delaying a major game will cause less game sales in the year making less money for the company. So investors will sell their stock.

This is 100% the rule of economics.

The drop isn't market hardware or software sales it's Greedy Investors looking for short term gains and not looking at the larger and longer forecast. That is why they are not metric that one should follow. They are in for the Money not the long term Company Survival.

They are aware that pretty much none of nintendos fanbase wants streaming right? That was one of the awful things about the other conferences, not a good thing
I'm pretty sure Banjo is "major collaboration" between Microsoft.
As for animal crossing, Im honestly kind of happy as the end of the year was pretty crowded, and it would have overshadowed some smaller but amazing games. In the spring though, when not to much is coming out, it will have time to shine all to itself

@Aslanmagic
I agree with you. Investors are ridiculous with the whining and complaining. I can handle the delay because it gonna to be phenomenal when it arrive.

Pickle rick best be in it, or i'll be heckin mad!

I feel sorry for investors. Many of them are so devoted to making more $$$ than they know what to do with; but if it came to stopping to play an actual Nintendo game & enjoy life, they probably wouldn't know how...

I'm pretty sure we all expected the delay, and it's not really that big of one either. Dips like this really feel like par for the course, it happens almost every time Nintendo has an exciting Direct with big stuff. I don't even pretend to understand what these investors are thinking.

They lost one billion, but they'll recover it (and gain more) after Animal Crossing launches.
Investors are worrying about nothing, the second half of 2019 is stacked.

@sanderev @evilregal As someone with Nintendo stock, I can say that what you're saying might be true for some but smarter investors know the "tides of change". It's also untrue that we "only care for money."

I play my Switch probably more than is healthy. I am more interested in a platform for Bravely, Etrian, Pokemon, and Rune Factory more than the other games. Even with my tastes and loyalty I know that it's better to pull out during competitor console announcement year (especially since Nintendo announces things at different times than the competitors) and to stick to my investing guns during high-attachment game releases like Pokemon times of year. I can't speak for all investors but I know when it's time to give Nintendo a bit of space and when to come back, and it's not just because "quick money." There are legitimate concerns about technological fidelity with Nintendo, especially when you see others following a very obvious trend.

I have no doubt November to March will be better times anyway.

This strikes me as an unreasonable reaction. If Animal Crossing’s delay had been announced with little other news, than sure, I can see how that would worry investors, but Nintendo just knocked it out of the park this time. I can’t remember another E3 with this many exciting Nintendo announcements.

Investors are mad, and rightly so. Short term Nintendo could have rushed out a product that would have sold well and probably sold some consoles also. I'd say this is a win for a gamers though, Nintendo paying more attention to game quality than short term profits. Basically the opposite of fallout 76.

That being said I cried myself to sleep after I didn't hear ANYTHING from Metroid. SAMUS WHY???

Doomed. This is what happens when you put all of your eggs in one game...

The Breath of the Wild sequel looked awesome but it's really hard to get excited for something that wont be released until 2021 at the earliest. For Nintendo to show a snippet in 2019 was a little early in my opinion..

Also, to be fair we were down to like 30 USD 6 months ago. No reason for alarm.

Thought it was a joke post. Drop the siccest direct in ages, and the stock drops?

as an investor and gamer, it wasnt enough , needed more, big reveal was new botw, we already knew that, only saving grace is market hos forgotten about mkwt coming soon

Are you SURE it was because of AC? Pokémon Sword/Shield took a HUGE blow yesterday too...

It was a bit of blow to see the delay, but after looking back at all the cool releases still coming out, I'm not too fussed. I've just postponed abandoning my job and family, ready for devoting 24/7 for AC. My devotion to duty is surely to put the stock figures back in black.

@MegaMari0 yup it amazes me how negatively these markets react to rumours not being true.

Can't believe the stock would drop so much because of one game. As here I was worried how I was going to survive September , and maybe deciding which games I get day one , and what will have to be put on the backburner with how much is coming out that much

AC being delayed is a bigger deal than appears, it should have been the game to drive switch sales over xmas, now there is nothing, expect poke in nov

Well you don’t necessarily need to know anything about gaming in order to be an investor

@jockmahon I somewhat agree in the same position. Some of the revivals were great for the crowd despite my lack of excitement.

@EmmatheBest I think you nailed it. Pokemon, a game with historically massive attachment rate to new system buys, has made their audience angry enough so that it isn't even a "vocal minority". That plus lagging behind Sony/MS new consoles and cloud abilities/gaming passes makes even me think about pulling my cash out.

Nintendo investors are the absolute worst garbage people. Imagine how terrible the fallout would be if Animal Crossing was rushed out and was severely lacking. There's more to life than making a quick buck. I really wish Nintendo was a private company, then we wouldn't have to deal with ignorant investors meddling in things they know nothing about.

Many investors care only about short term gains even if it causes damage in its wake. Nintendo is playing the longer game. Pokemon is already the big title for the final quarter of 2019, Animal Crossing is then set as the big title for the 1st quarter of next year. Both are games that require a lot of dedication and have mass market appeal so best to spread them than having them compete against one another.

I can't see this being related to Animal Crossing.
Nintendo still has plenty of games coming out. It's not like delaying Animal Crossing will leave them without anything to sell. And Pokemon would beat AC in sales as a holiday exclusive 10 times out of 10. This seems to me more like a group of investors that were hoping for a large increase in revenue from a new console to sell

As always, this is trying to make news out of a one-day price fluctuation. The Nintendo stock price closed yesterday 35% higher than it started the year.

@Old_Man_Nintendo Historically, Nintendo's consoles have had a higher attach rate than their portables.

It'll be interesting to see what kind of impact this will have on the Switch's attach rates (since it's actually both). That being said, as of December of last year, 3 games had a greater than 50% attach rate on the Switch: BotW, Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8.

Animal Crossing may be able to pull that off.

You’ve got it all wrong! It’s because they decided to not show Pikmin 4 at the last minute!

Because we all know it’s ready, right? Right?! RIGHT?!!!!!!!!

@Old_Man_Nintendo
Switch software sales are much, much stronger on Switch than on 3DS. In fact, I believe Switch software sales are 2X 3DS software sales when launch aligned.

Also, the Switch will be sitting at ~50 million units sold by the time New Horizons is released. The 3DS sold ~33 million units by the time New Leaf was released across the world. Install base won't be an issue at all.

Again, unless New Horizons is flat-out bad, it should sell as strongly if not much more than New Leaf. It getting delayed out of the holidays will sting.

@chardir True. The billion dollar headline makes it seem like a bigger deal than it is. The stock went from $45.50 yesterday to $43.50 today. Not a huge drop. And it will probably go back up again soon

The delay makes sense for their sales figures. Pokemon will shift a lot of holiday units making the market size for animal crossing much better in March. If the delay (which is small by their standards) means a bit of a higher quality game as well then great. This delay plays out better for them in the long run.

@Elithal Mine was probably an overly sweeping generalization, and I do apologize for that. I just know that so much work in the world of finance is so time-consuming, and doesn't allow time for R&R. Maybe if I did more work in that field, my wallet wouldn't hate me with the passion it does for love of gaming.

So, investors cry about cloud streaming on a handheld? How many countries have unlimited mobile internet and good enough downloadspeeds? Also this whole pushing for a new switch is absurd, just came out and people want it replaced.

Animal crossing being delayed has little impact on me. I am very surprised investors would attribute its delay as reason for the drop.
Although Nintendo showed a lot of games few of them really jumped out. In a year where Microsoft, Sony are pushing new hardware. Nintendo really needed to show up with knock out games if they weren't going to release new switch versions. All we really got was games we already knew about, games no one really asked for, big games missing from the line up - bayonetta, smt, metroid.

After being routinely disappointed by the WiiU, we've decided not to buy a switch until Animal Crossing is available. That's one sale missing for 2019.

Dear god, there’s a mainline Pokémon for years end, a new Yokai ( for Japan) and a slew of other games. Animal Crossing would have been fighting its own console base for sales, the delay makes sense.

@EvilRegal Haha, oh I definitely get it. I hear conversation with other investors with wide eyes sometimes, many are reactive instead of future-minded. I don't read up on stock news and discussion expecting candy and flowers lol.

And I definitely understand the wallet thing. I literally have a monthly budget for gaming...however I have a budget for just about everything...lol

@Elithal Stockmarket is literally buying / selling money with money. Sure you can do a long term investment in a company (and yes, this IS wise) but most are simply in it to make a lot of profit (buy cheap, sell when the stocks are high)

And even a long term investment is to get even more money later on. So yeah, it's still and always will be all about the money. And yeah that's okay.

@Dan_Dan We know the Switch can do streaming, I believe RE7 and some other game does it in Japan even with the technical limitations. Those are just my thoughts anyway. I like where Switch is at but I know a few who were looking forward to streaming hitting the west.

@sanderev You are absolutely right, though in deeper thought I like to think of investment as a "tangible revenue representing belief in growth and interest." If a company has a lower amount of money invested then I see it as less ability to grow and engage the consumers, also meaning a dip in that market reflects a weakened viewpoint. I know plenty of people like to think "Delays and no systems when I see others doing it? I'm out!" Which is pretty dumb in the long run but shows the nature of invesment for some.

I'm not saying my viewpoint on investment is 100% the best, but I do like to think it's at least more noble than reaction investors lol.

Sounds like they got over hyped on false rumours. They spent too much time on resetera, I think.

On a serious note though, this seems to happen every E3 so it's nothing new. It'll bounce back in a few weeks.

Nintendo just had their best E3 showing to date, in my opinion beating epics like 2010, 2011 and 2016, and this is how investors respond...

It's just the usual short sighted drop from investors that don't know anything about gaming.

If they really knew... well, the drop would be far, far bigger.

Retro Studios - nothing to show, again. That's an entire studio, getting 5 years of pay and overheads with minimal return. And now they're working on Metroid Prime 4... a game that already experienced development problems. My confidence is low.

Switch Online - 12 month renewal date fast approaching, but there's absolutely zero new content or feature updates announced. Not even a significant new multiplayer title to make people renew and extend membership.

Delays - Fire Emblem, late. Yoshi, late. Animal Crossing, late. Daemon x Machina, late. Not being funny, but BotW2 was such an obvious win for Nintendo I'd even argue that by saying "in development" instead of "2020" makes that "late" too!

I'm a huge fan of Nintendo... but they are seriously missing opportunities. It's frustrating!

@ryancraddock That graph is in Yen. Just saying.

I'd understand the reaction if AC had been canceled, but this is ridiculous. There's a lot of good stuff that'll be coming out before the holiday season. As for following trends, history has proven that this isn't always wise. Besides, work/Iife balance is important, which is a glaring issue in the I.T. industry and others as well.

I know that investors =/= gamers, but yeesh. Gain some humanity and common sense here.

I could care less about Animal Crossing. I tried New Leaf and just didn't care for it.

Now it's going to cost more bells for your house.

I'm sorry, but these people are morons. No two ways about it.

Animal Crossings delay means absolutely nothing with the stellar lineup Nintendo still has for 2019. If anything, it strengthens early 2020 a lot, which is only a good thing.

I'll never understand how the minds of these people work.

Nintendo has a super solid, absolutely amazing E3 and finishes it off with something as major as a sequel to BotW amongst several quality games neatly lined up throughout the whole period of the delay, and the only thing investors hear is:
"something got delayed by more than 1 second, DIVE FOR THE BUNKER PEEPS! IT IS EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF, SAVE YOUR MONEY!"

If anything, the stocks should've seen a 1% rise or more, if these people actually knew the games industry and what this means for Nintendo. Buuuut at least it's kinda humorous to sit back and watch them do stupid things and make nonsensical decisions.

Clever people who know that this was a good E3 for Nintendo will be buying up those stocks like mad.

@sanderev The issue with them selling their stocks is they'll be sitting there looking like morons once they gotta buy them back at a higher price because they dun goofed and had absolutely no idea about how little an impact delaying Animal Crossing has overall. Heck, if anything they'll be scrambling to buy them around its release time and have lost money.

Nintendo's current release schedule means that A: they'll still be releasing Animal Crossing within this fiscal year, and B: if Animal Crossing had been released during 2019, it would at the very earliest be December, and quite honestly there are enough games releasing that it would be detrimental to Animal Crossing's launch numbers.

The game would simply sell less. But apparently they don't even know this much, which makes me wonder how they have their jobs.

This is on point for these capitalists that usually rear their heads into creative industries looking for a quick buck and portfolio boost, while being completely ignorant around the creative and development process. All they care about is "value," short-termism and projections. Vomit-inducing.

How dumb. There is so much coming this year, and it doesnt seem like anyone actually wants cloud based gaming. I would much rather have a downloaded/physical game and not have to worry about the internet constantly.

@Starburst Investors sadly know nothing about what they're investing it. Which is usually the first thing you're suppposed to do something about. Buuut I guess that they prefer being ignorant and losing money.

That's funny. When I heard that Animal Crossing would be delayed I got excited because Nintendo is one of the few gaming bastions to still actually take pride in their final product.

@Silly_G "the lack of Bayonetta 3 and Metroid Prime 4 news played a part."

Came to say that. And, probably historically sticks go down after E3, buy the rumour, sell the news. And the NY Times rumour has been, and continues to be even today, two new Switch models, Pro and Mini, are on the way. New hardware might have been the ONLY thing to make the stock pop. A delayed AC probably didn't help, but the stock price was going to go down anyway. There was plenty of software - TW3, RE, Pokemon, Luigi, Zelda - 1 delay couldn't have meant that much. No new hardware probably was the main culprit. No MP4 or B3 meant really nothing mature, no Pikmin 4 meant no Pikmin 4 yet again. AC delay, not buying it.

Yeah this had nothing to do with animal crossing getting delayed. This was the result of Junichi Masuda announcing that you want be able to transfer all of the other 809 pokemon to Sword and Shield at any point during gameplay, only ones found in the galar region and that they plan on this to be how they handle games going forward.

Reporting on things you dont know enough about. How about some real news kids,

Nintendo is considering taking production out of China.

shhh dont tell anyone i told you.

@Blizzia I am a investor, and make more than i deserve. I do know what i am doing, also for my clients. So now what?

Maybe Tom Nook IS the investor and he's not pleased to have to wait to get island rental bells until FFVII month next year. 🤔

Oh well. It goes down it goes down. What does it matter.

Some investors can be such reactive idiots, as if the only thing that matters is maximizing profit for the present cycle (even when it's potentially toxic for the company's long term success or for a particular franchise.) My guess is that the delay is in Nintendo's and AC's best interest, even though the game is probably in a state where it could be released this year and then polished and expanded with 2020 updates. However, when it comes to important games like AC, Nintendo likes to have an isolated release window where there's only one big game release, so that it will stay in the gaming headlines throughout the launch window as hardcore fans explore it and talk about it, which then makes even more people want to buy it. The 2019 holiday season is probably glutted with big releases, and maybe ACNH won't be ready til holiday season. But if released at that time, AC's launch and sales might end up being muted and overshadowed as consumers (and especially families) are forced to choose between this thing or that thing. Nintendo has probably set aside a launch window in 2020 just for AC so that it can really shine - which also gives the dev team more time to polish and test the game and to implement even more potential features from their wish list. Maybe I'll actually have a switch by then, too (lol) and who knows - maybe there will be ACNH bundles to help move systems if a new, more portable and affordable Switch model should be unexpectedly introduced during the 2018 holiday season (presumably with a pokemon bundle available at that time.)

@Aslanmagic Haha I know! Someone at Nintendo R&D sneezed ten minutes ago. Nintendo shares drop 17.3%. It's sad really, but that's business, and there's a reason these investors make so much damn money (the speed they react).

I’m fine with the delay since Nintendo might want to make the game the best possible so far, but I think the angry fans that have caused the $1 billion drop on Nintendo have gone REALLY TOO FAR. Now, i may go into a little rant here, but why get mad over a delay?! This may benefit Nintendo on getting the best final product and maybe benefit us on getting news of the game while we wait! I’m just really disappointed in the community for this unnecessary thing. 😠

I expected this so much; we had zero news on Animal Crossing until this Direct, so I was entirely unsurprised by this. I admit, I'm sad it was pushed back, but at the same time, it's absolutely in character for Nintendo with so long without news

It just didn t look that great. Need to see more.

Its really just proof that most investors don't know what they invest in lol. Seems like majority of people have a positive feedback to the Direct.
Although, I don't think its related to Animal Crossing being delayed. Not that I would know, but the lineup for this year and next is strong. Animal Crossing could use the delay to not only make it even better than it already is, but also give us a bit more time to play other huge releases until then. Tons of games to buy and play, no worries.

@FrowningCoach You're here on NintendoLife. Do the math.

I expect AC:NH is or will be done and ready for this fall. Moving the release date to avoid competing with Pokemon seems most likely. Using the 'perfecting the product' excuse is about the only thing you can say to ameliorate fan feelings.

Much rather they take their time. TBH the two games I was waiting for before buying a Switch was Pokemon and AC. Didn't even realized it had been announced lol. Fake fan whatever. I'll happily wait til 2020 for a better game.

It'll go back up the second they announce the switch mini.

Cool. I’ll buy some shares when the market opens

I agree with the others. It's always disappointing for game releases to be delayed, but you've got to respect the work that goes into making them. Things happen. As for Nintendo, the future is just fine.

@Yorumi Is Animal crossing really going to be that though? I've never played a game in the series so I'm legitimately asking. As of right now Mario kart has that title and the Pokemon games everybody wanted last year are kicking off the holiday season this year and even those games that did come out in these new ones place did well.

They showed plenty to keep me busy until AC comes out. It seems like investers are jumping the gun just a bit.

After seeing all the new titles for switch I thought I should get a second job to afford them all, then quit both jobs to play them all.

@AtomicAtom

If they use the same engine it won't take anywhere near as long to produce. We also don't know how long it has been in development.

Nintendo: wins E3
Nintendo Investor: I see this as a complete failure.

The Switch had a decent E3 (non-E3) 2019. Not mind blowing by any means. I think many people thought that because in contrast of the other showings it seemed to be better. Sony didn't even bother showing up, which was probably a smart move since they are liking concentrating on PS5 development and wouldn't have much to show yet.

Good lord that is ridiculous! The game was delayed, not cancelled! And other companies had almost nothing to show! Sony didn't even attend!

Investors are fools if they are really buying into the steaming tech. It's not there yet and wont be for a while. Nothing but buzz words!

Is AC that big of a franchise?

pokemon outrage thing likely played a role in the stock drop

How do you know it's because of this one game?

I don't think Nintendo's stock dropped because of Animal Crossing. It's more likely because Sword and Shield revealed it has no national dex and has taken away a lot of key features from previous games, such as Megas, etc.

@Starman292 true, it's nice to know what kind of zelda were going to be getting that a good takeaway from it. Looking forward to the darker tone too.

@AtomicAtom
Yeahh I'm hoping for more of a proper story in the sequel. Funnily enough botw was thought up when anouma played skyrim (obviously very free roam, not linear and story centric). But recently he said RDR2 influenced the sequel (which is much more story and character based). So I'm thinking I could enjoy the sequel even more.

@Old_Man_Nintendo

Your purchase list looks a bit like mine.

IMO Nintendo was best in show by a country mile. If nothing else, then for the sheer amount of content announced.

This summer is completely stacked with releases. And there's plenty to look forward to for the rest of the year. I'm also convinced that we're going to get another direct with news about holiday releases since the holiday season is still a little sparse.

I expected it . Same thing happened last year. I have some stock and sold some of it before E3. Hopefully this bounces back. Btw, nobody actually loses money. It's on paper. And it's already the secondary market. So Nintendo doesn't lose money. One investor sells and another buys the same stock pool. Investors decided to sell the stock and make money now.

@JHDK just think about the delays botw had and how good the game was when released! On the other hand I prefer the old blizzard way, they announced they were working on something but with no ETA since I know how hard it is to make everything perfect

NIntendo’s market value dropped because no Donkey Kong Country game was announced

Animal crossing might be their biggest market due to parents buying it for their kids, but the fact that 95% of switch users own ssbu or botw or both and it broke over 8million unit sales in japan.

Be real

I know it’s an exaggeration, but I’d rather wait another 3 years, lets say, for games that i love, like animal crossing or cyberpunk, than have them early and filled with bugs or incomplete.

Well this sums up the whole problem with the system that we are living in. So many companies rush products, cut content, add road maps, etc... to get their games on the market. The consumers and developers are left unhappy then the dumb investors cry fowl, followed by the publisher saying “the game performed below expectations”. Of course it did! Consumers can smell overhyped and rushed trash, especially with the internet and so many leakers and journalists getting inside information. Fallout ‘76 was released in early access for 60 dollars. Did they not think people were going to notice? Not to mention the fact that every COD and Battlefield has to sell more with every installment which isn’t going to happen every time even if the game is good.

Don’t sweat it Nintendo. Just keep doing what you are doing.

Why is it that Nintendo can make their fans happy but not their investors

Investors...they don't have a single clue about what players want.
It is a little sad actually.

I bet Nintendo won't even feel it. Don't worry

This isn’t really a surprise - investors want to see the player base extended and the major selling season (Christmas) taken full advantage of. Delaying Animal Crossing will certainly miss that opportunity to an extent - how much impact long term no-one knows - but investors are predictors and they like feeling secure. They were probably expecting a mega mega holiday season and this just introduced uncertainty.

Meanwhile Nintendo keeps being Nintendo and trusts the methodology that has made it a global mega brand, brought joy to generation after generation and kept developing it’s in house talent.

@JHDK Hey, you wouldn't want the devs to get sick due to crunch, would you? Also, there's plenty other stuff to get excited for in the lead-up. And there's probably a whole backlog you haven't done so go do that. So the moral is not to cry over spilled milk.

@Silly_G,

I doubt that Bayonetta or Metroid would matter that much,hardly big sellers.

@Old_Man_Nintendo,

Like you already corrected New leaf sold around 12 million copies and is the 7th best selling game on the 3DS,however even though the Switch has less units than the 3DS it's game attach rate is higher so I would expect a new Animal crossing title to sell very well indeed,10 million is a very conservative estimate imo,the Switch already has 5 titles that have sold 10 million copies.

@Gzeus88 Animal Crossing is a big game. It sold 12,3 million on the 3DS. Only 4 million less than Pokémon Sun and Moon (arguably their best seller next to Mario). People have been crying for Animal Crossing, and especially Japan. Its the first new entry in a solid 7 years.

Animal Crossing delayed feels normal to me. I'm pretty sure every version after the original has had large delays.

I think there's plenty on the way for now if you consider what Switch already has to offer.

@iMarkU
My point was animal crossing is unlikely to be the main reason why stock went down. No new hardware, delayed games, rumoured games not being shown, wanted mature titles missing, poor online capabilities continue. Nintendo just thought they could chuck a bunch of games we already knew about at e3 and that be it. Granted many folk seem to think it was amazing but I'm sure those are the people with no critical mind when it relates to Nintendo.

How in the heck can investors go into panic because of a 12-16 week delay of one major title during a litany of a dozen plus major titles and partnerships, including a major new entry in the #1 franchise in the industry releasing prior to that? I know stock bubbles before every PR event and tanks immediately after, but that level of reaction is just bizarre. What the heck kind of hobby day trading shareholders has Nintendo somehow attracted? What happened to all the banks?

@MegaMari0 The fact that we've pegged survival of civilization against a system that runs on "feelings and shiny things" should be cause for mass panic and riot.

@TJM "but investors are predictors and they like feeling secure. They were probably expecting a mega mega holiday season and this just introduced uncertainty."

Investors that want security should invest in fossil fuels and defense contractors, not entertainment companies. They're getting a mega, mega holiday season including Pokemon. Animal Crossing should barely be a blip to them in the wake of Smash, Zelda, Mario, and Pokemon announcements. It's just an odd reaction all the way around. These are the bubble investors, and it's probably more China/new hardware related than it is Animal Crossing related.

A billion dollars? How much is that in bells?

@Archius9 True, but a certain controversial decision by Game Freak certainly will.

not tying to throw shade at Nintendo but it shows how big of a deal Animal Crossing is

If I was investing in individual stocks I would buy the f*ck out of some Nintendo right now. Investors are dumb as hell.

@iMarkU animal crossing is Nintendo's The Sims. It's the game that core gamers ignore but sells gangbusters because it hits that girlfriend/mom crowd real hard. Not to say it's a "girly" game but that it's major appeal lives outside of the people who drive sales for games like Zelda and Assassin's Creed.

1 billion yen, not dollars

Okay, I work in the financial services industry. That does not of course make me an expert on every stock, but I've passed my series 7 and 24 so I have an idea about the industry.

The Nintendo fan has every right to question the investors, and actually, some of you are correct when you say these people probably don't even own a Switch. Most of them probably do not. You would also be correct in assuming that most of them only care about "$$$."

There are a good portion of people who invest in companies because they like their product. Warren Buffett is big on this so it's a nice strategy, but there is a large number of investors especially ones that might invest in Nintendo that only care about turning a profit.

We could get technical, but in the end, Nintendo is a stock that is concentrated in one sector. Xbox has everything that goes with Microsoft. Sony has a wide breath of products in different industries. Nintendo does not. This makes them a play for people like hedge fund managers, sector-based mutual fund and ETF managers, and even some emerging market managers that are very aggressive.

These guys, especially hedge fund managers, buy in very large lots and they trade a lot off of news, analytics, and even their gut. I'm not saying it's right, but they see a big title move to March 2020. They don't care that third party support, a still stellar line up, and a future push in brand awareness is on the horizon. They are basically looking for the next mover.

That being said. As a fan of the industry and Nintendo in particular, it is a good buy. They have a ton of cash on hand, and they have little to no debt as a company. However, considering what games are on the horizon, any extra money you have sitting around may already be spoken for.

@Old_Man_Nintendo we seem to have some interests in common. I must say that I'm a little dissappointed in the lack of news on metroid prime 4 or metroid prime trilogy. that would have done it for me.

Well investors are apparently big fans of Animal Crossing.

I thought it was 1 Billion yen...???

We can’t give up yet. Two BIG games are coming out. Luigi’s Mansion 3 and PKMN Sword and Shield. That probably enough to bring the market value back to normal. And don’t worry because we have the switch.

Investing is calendar-based. None of the investors care about games or even about the company. They only want short term gain financial gain in 2019. If they don't see the money right now they sell, hoping the stock price will drop and then buy again again later if they think 2020 will be more profitable.

@rr_sqrl Unfortunately, I think you're spot on. I hate the way business and market trading works like that. How things are often valued is too far removed from creating a good product or service in my opinion.

Fact is Nintendo's 2019 looked good 6 months ago, but then we got a load of delays and a whole load of nothing.

It's halfway through the year and I've literally played Wargroove and Yoshi.

What happened?!

Its 2018 all over again, except this time when people say "the handheld dev teams need more time to make games for Switch obviously" it doesn't stack up.

Disappointed.

@nocdaes I dunno we're still getting massive amount of stuff. And I have my hunch(I'll go into it next) that it's not even about the games. Not for people as impulsives as investors who would never give a rat ass about games because it's good enough if the even know the titles of them.

We have:
Super Mario Maker 2, Bloodstained this month.
Dragon Quest Builders 2, Fire Emblems Three House next month.
Astral Chain(from Bayonetta dev) and others in August.
September is... holy hell: Link's Awakening, Dragon Quest 11S, Ni No Kuni, Daemon X Machina all at once.
I don't know what's releasing in October but it won't matter with Pokemon of all things a month after. Even December is moot with Pokemon just the month before and I still suspect something will be coming in December since it's starting to be an holidays tradition for Nintendo to have the biggest releases in that period.

The thing is the big stocks drop? It's not a shock and not even about games.

One thing investors types have been hyping a lot was the possibility of a new Switch model revealed at E3. At some point, Nintendo themselves had to repeatedly come up to claim there were no plans for new hardware to be revealed at E3 except investors self-hyped themselves so much about the idea that Nintendo's stocks started to rise as clearly, for investors, Nintendo was announcing there was "no plans" was just corpspeak to actually keep the lid on the secret new Switch model that would be revealed at E3?

Guess what didn't get revealed at E3? A new Switch models? All these investors who hyped themselves so much and driving Nintendo's stock value up, despite Nintendo themselves basically pleading investors to not hype themselves on something that wasn't, at the mere thought that a new model could come out at E3.... and none did.

Investors aren't machine of logics. They're animal of pure emotions and guts reactions ready to believe the slightest of rumors hard if they think they can make a single cent from it and ready to throw the biggest hissfits if their so-lauded "guts" are proven wrongs.

All we're seeing is the real-time results of that. People who self-hyped themselves that "clearly" Nintendo had a new console and streaming service, coming because it's a trend and Nintendo should follow trends right?
Then suddenly coming to face reality and getting mad that the new console Nintendo repeatedly told them wasn't coming didn't come and how dare Nintendo prove their guts prediction wrong?

@rr_sqrl It's not even about Animal Crossing I feel.

It's all about themselves hyping themselves up a new Switch model was coming despite Nintendo repeatedly telling them one wasn't going to be announced at E3(until some investors even got themselves so twisted they decided Nintendo saying that was proof it was coming for E3), driving up Nintendo's stock value on the sheet thought the the announcement would come..... and then E3 pass and just like Nintendo told them multiple times: no consoles was announced.

Investors aren't people of logic and reasons, they're frequently animals of pure emotions super full of themselves that if they decide something IS happening and they decide to make money on it, you could tell them repeatedly it's not that they only will listen to their "guts feeling"

Stock market is not about economy, it's all about psychology. And a lot of short-sighted people panicking like headless chickens.

And then there's Stadia doing the whole streaming announcement and how dare Nintendo not follow suit like perfect trend followers?

The stock drop had nothing to do with animal crossing. It had to do with Game Freak announcing that they wouldn't be including all the pokemon in Sword and Shield.

All the news I've heard about people and animal crossing is that they're compeltely ok with it, whereas most of the thoughts I've heard about the pokemon stuff has been pretty negative.

I mean, there's even a petition going around to ask game freak to delay the game just so they have time to put in all the pokemon. There's no petition (to my knowledge) asking for animal crossing to be pushed up to an earlier release window.

Investors done messed up. They will take a loss for sure!

Nintendo: We prioritize the health and well-being of our hard working staff and employees in this company, and take great value in ensuring that they are always working at their very best level on our games. We will even provide them with more time to work on them if they are unsatisfied with the product, or if they especially fall ill, because we treat our developers like any other human being. Please understand.

Investors: That is extremely understandable and we appreciate your consideration towards your employees and staff working on games within the company, ensuring a stable financial growth

Nintendo: With that being said, we'd like to announce that we're delaying Animal Crossing to early 2020 to ensure it is the best possible product while also taking into consideration the health and welfare of the people working on it.

Investors:
https://youtu.be/uwBIee5HQhM

Lol at all the kids talking about investors like they dont know where their money is going. Hello? From the reality side?

@starman292 Seriously? Man if ot really turns out that way this Zelda could be one pf the greats for me personally. I love Zelda when its a nice friendly game but Majoras Mask is my favorite Zelda game so i love that tone.

If it means we get the best game it could possibly be, I'm happy with the delay

@HobbitGamer So true

@Ashunera84 ok now this was funny