Nintendo President Says 20 Million Switch Target Failed Due To "Insufficient" Efforts To Convey Its Appeal

They need the first-party games to really hook people. Smash just came too late in the financial year.

I'd put it more down to a lack of compelling new software for most of the year until Pokemon and Smash came out.

This is Nintendo's biggest issue, whether they can get out enough big games as 3rd parties still haven't really taken up the slack

Interesting point - from a personal viewpoint, I feel that the Switch had stronger momentum (with regards to titles) in the second half of the year from the first, which felt at odds with the rest of the industry that actually produced some high profile titles in the first six months.

I’m no businessman, but it seems to me that 20 million was just too ambitious a target, and there was nothing they could have done to hit it. It probably would have helped if they’d had more “must have” titles during the first half of the year. I was happy with their lineup, but I know a lot of people weren’t, and even I admit that it was weaker than it could have been.

2018 was a quiet year in terms of first party releases, and for 2019 they haven't announced anything concrete beyond Yoshi's Crafted World in March. You gotta bring out your big guns to hit sales targets like that.

I feel like there weren’t enough heavy hitters in the summer. We had Fortnite, Mario Tennis Aces, and Octopath, but only one of those likely sold consoles. Hopefully 2019 has a more consistent release schedule.

And by “efforts” I assume they mean games, because that’s what was insufficient.

Just make more 1st party games or heck some new dlc for something like Mario Kart 8 DX surprised people are still buying it would also help

Don't be so hard on yourself mate. Don't think anyone out there is going to consider 17 million units a failure. The target was ambitious in the first place.

Perhaps a new Direct would appease those investors? Please?

He used the words 'new consumers'... he basically means they didn't succeed in selling Switch to people outside of the core gaming community in the way they had hoped. That is what Labo was meant to do.

With Wii U, they failed to convey the platform for all audiences.

How about you CONVEY a new direct???? Seriously...it's been AGES

Including myself, I know 5 Switch owners. I barely associate with more people than that so that market is pretty saturated. Gotta get them casuals and hardcore ps4/pc holdouts.
Wish Nintendo luck on meeting their next goal, but they're going to need a lot more games to do it.

I admire their honesty but they need to move to a more year round calendar approach of high profile releases. Their big sellers all came in Q4 but there's no reason they can't release at least 1-2 big games in the other quarters. If the titles are good as Nintendo games tend to be, people will buy.

Geez, 3 milliom short of 20? They got 85% ot the way there; for a crazy market prediction that's damn close enough to even say they were just rounding up. I don't know what they're so upset about.

Usual Nintendo problems.

Not enough triple AAA Nintendo games out.
And not enough triple AAA 3rd party games which are multiformat.

I’ve been playing since Snes was released, and it’s got better and worse over time.

It always has, and still is an issue.

In saying that sales were still good, so perhaps they need to be more realistic.

what SWITCH needs to get past the slump it's in is 3RD PARTY SUPPORT.**

with it's current tech-specs, it's under powered in comparison to the PS4 and XBOX ONE..**

this is not a positive selling point..** ehhh..***

@Dringo yep, I agree. They clearly expected Labo to move more hardware, but it failed with 1 million units sold

The Switch already outsold the original XBox and will eventually surpass the XBone. This whole “below expectations” mentality suggests that everyone remotely interested in video games has to get your game/console. It’s not a bottomless pit even if you play all your cards right.

What I am getting from that is more marketing and since I primarily blame lack of marketing for killing the wonderful wiiu.... and boosting the switch more of that will be fantastic. Pull out the stops Nintendo, pull out the stops.

No Nintendo, it's because the Switch barely got any games in Q2 (July-September) and Q4 (January-March). Though it is impressive that Smash got them so close.

They where probably waiting for Smash to swoop in and save the day as per usual. Didn't work this time around...

Well talk about falling on your sword... the ambition was lofty, and Nintendo should probably award themselves a relatively hardy pat on the back for their efforts. Maybe they should be a bit more organised with regulating regular software releases but they’ve got some big hitters out there in a short space of time.
Also ‘we plan to sell more hardware/software’ is stating the obvious a tad.

Efforts to convey appeal is just a long winded way of saying big games.

Oh well. That’s their own fault. Blame the fans. They didn’t have enough third party games and only three major releases, the worst part is the fans. They need to release an upgraded Switch by the time the next Xbox and PlayStation systems arrive or the Switch won’t even reach 40 million.

I would guess 99% of Wii U owners now own a Switch. I owned a Wii U, and am happy with my Switch, buying all the first party titles and a bunch of 3rd party. Some people who have only owned a PS4, XB1 or 3DS also must of bought one, but I would guess that is where the rest of the customers are going to have to come from. How do you entice them? Well the 3DS is all about core Pokemon and Animal Crossing, so with those 2 games coming this year should attract that customer base. But to attract the HD twins usual punter Nintendo will need to bring stuff like Madden, COD, Assassins Creed, and alike, because I still get the feeling a lot of them won’t invest in the system to play Mario and Zelda alone.

I think expecting smash to near singlehandedly carry the entire fiscal year was incredibly arrogant. This is on them.

So they've worked out (9 months after everybody else) what the problem was, and to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again, they've decided to open this year in the same fashion as last year except with even fewer games. Brilliant. Hats off to you, boys.

@Nicolai that’s not how stock market works. If any company cannot accurately predict sales, stocks take a hit. People bought stock based on selling 20 million.

That headline reads like the beginning of a joke that starts with -

Stop me if you've heard this one before...

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/07/reggie_fils-aime_on_why_the_wii_u_was_misunderstood

Believe me, if Reggie had said this you'd all be having feelings of deja vu.

Edit: Article author did point this out down near the bottom of the article, so credit where it's due.

And they can, don't know about will, sell more Switch this year if the Mini releases bundled with AC in the Spring or summer and Pokémon in the fall or holiday.

Anybody else in retrospect view that $35 eShop credit as a lazy weak attempt to generate more Switch sales b/c they realize something is amiss? Maybe Metroid news spooked them.

And where the heck is the bloody Direct?

@OmegaYato mhhh, 40 millions will be reached by july this year, probably. By the end of march they'll be comfortably sitting on 35 million Switch sold, that's a given. In fact, by revising the forecast they've been pretty conservative, they should have no problem to end the FY at 17,5, maybe 18, which is well over 35 LTD.
About the next FY, they're going to dominate the holiday season again with Pokémon and Animal Crossing, I can see them reach the 20 millions target and get 55 by march 2020.
Tl;dr nope, you're wrong

And Q1 2019 does not look much better if at all. Rest of the year better be amazing.

Increase sales?

-more quality first party titles.
-more third partys on board
-more classic games on the eshop (nes, Snes, n64, gamecube, even WiiU games)

But at least bring games that are related to the smashbros characters. Everyone loves them or even a collaboration between characters.

@rjejr Yeah but I think the WiiU was really genuinely misunderstood. Nintendo has done a fantastic job in marketing the “appeal” and capabilities of the Switch. This is an invented problem without a substantive basis in reality.

@MrGawain I disagree, why would people who own a PS4 or Xbone buy inferior versions of games they can already get? The games like Mario and Zelda are used to attract these gamers as they can't play those games anywhere else.

I don't blame him as the goal was most likely made before he became president. He seems to have a good business sense about him though. Iwata was the creative and personal side and he will take the company in a different direction for sure. I doubt we will see him much in the media as he seems like he's more of the behind the scenes president.

"the year-on-year sales increase during the first half of the fiscal year (April to September) turned out not big enough"

Lol, well no kidding, Nintendo itself had no releases from May until October. It was a big gap, only supported by third party efforts and some DLC for existing games.

Still though, it was still pretty impressive that they even got close mainly riding on last years games and Let's Go/Smash.

The fact that they got so close mostly just riding on Smash last year is very impressive. I'm fine with the third party support we're getting (I'd rather get free to play games like Paladins and Warframe over monetized $60 Ubisoft/Activision/EA crap), and this year is going to be a lot better for first party games. I played a lot of fantastic indie games last year so I was very satisfied with my Switch, and Animal Crossing is going to consume all of my free time.

Nope. Lack of AAA first party games was the main reason. That's what people buy Nintendo consoles for and there were only like 3 this year.

Well just put something out in the beginning of the year ! 2019 Q1 is total crap

@NotTelevision "This is an invented problem without a substantive basis in reality."

Real problem or invented problem, it's difficult not to notice the similarities in the response. Which I think is "taking responsibility"? Hard to say, as a 'Murican that concept is anathema to me. 😝

@Spoony_Tech I was JUST formulating that comment in my head to post but I got sidetracked reading a reply above.

This guy just became President recently, right? Any US President would automatically think to simply throw the previous President under the bus, like it was the right and only thing to do - hey don't blame me for not hitting 20m, that wasn't me, it was that other guy.

Gotta admire a guy throwing himself under the bus when he just stepped into the job. I know it isn't just him, it's Japanese culture, but putting the company before yourself, darn that's refreshing to see. 😢

Yup. Can’t relying on Indie games to carry a gaming hardware. The hard-hitters came waaaay too late in the year. It’s looking better on the horizon now. But the first three months of 2019 it’s still pretty bad lineup of AAA-games. And the lack on some news of the big games hurts Nintendo right now.

I’ve gone back to my 3ds myself. Can’t find anything to play on my Switch.

@Dringo exactly that. LABO was expected to shift units and be a lot bigger than it ended up being. Think it would have done better with more competitive pricing as I think the units were overpriced in people’s minds due to it being cardboard.

4 first party game each year as big a smash, zelda or mario and it'll hit 100 million unit sold within 3 years.
This will never happen so I can't be wrong

I find it odd people are asking for "more quality first party games," this is a self-contradiction. Any developer can pump out okay games at a rate of knots (except EA who struggle to squeeze out the odd lootbox machine reskin), meanwhile Nintendo prefer to work on their games until they're good enough to be considered classics.

Hopefully Nintendo can wind-down the 3DS a little more quickly & put more resources into Switch development.

Considering that 2 years ago a lot of people on NLife didn't see Nintendo even HAVING hardware to sell past winter 2018, I think they've done pretty well.

Nintendo needs to release more games. We're now in February and we have little information about what's coming out this year and when.

This nintendo generation reminds me of Gamecube, increasingly tired rehashes of the franchises - with Zelda again being the exception - and no new IP.

Even Switch itself is Wii U 2.0.

Rereleasing the previous generations games can only get you but so far..

it's because of not enough big first party games not being released last year. i do believe that Pokemon 2019, Animal Crossing Mainline game, Luigi's Mansion 3 and Fire Emblem: Three Houses will sell a ton of units IF they are all still planned for this year.

They didn't meet their goal because it has been since 2017 since Breath of the Wild was new. The same goes for Mario Oddessy, Kart and Splatoon. Last year Smash was the only game that was first party that was good. It's hard to wait 6 months for another good game. The Switch is becoming a party and second console only. All these ports don't match up to ones that have been on the PS4 for years. They normally are cheaper on the PS4 too.
I can't be the only who is sick of games that look like SNES or Google play games. That could explain Nintendo not meeting its goal.

I love Nintendo but they have always had an issue with appealing to a larger audience and the copy as a whole is outdated.
Just look at the former Youtube policy, they acted like the internet was a new scary thing an they had no idea how to handle it. Same with most of the Switchs online functionality. It feels like a first attempt at a new online culture..expect its a decade behind the curve.

Even their social media presence is terrible. Yes they exist pretty much everywhere but they never interact with fans on any scale.
They need a AAA title that isn't Zelda or Mario and at this point they need a new IP. But they just keep using the old ones and are too scared to branch out.

they need better ads with more mature content...thier audience has dwindled down to nintendo enthusiest who then tell thier friends...they need to start showing more mature games less mario and pokemon go(which is horrible with motion controls everyone i have showed that game to has said pokemon go is free)

As far as I know the only thing holding back more Switch sales is the price of the base console. Sell a version without the dock and slash the price on that. Sales will go through the roof then AND demand for separate docks will increase. Most people spend in modular ways nowadays.

@earthinheritor they need to push a new splatoon game and really needed metroid to bring in a more adult audience, when will nintendo realize the money isnt in the tween market its in the adult market. people in my age group have money and would like to spend it o good games but lately the eshop is full of crap phone games....that needs to stop just cause someone can make a game for your system doenst mean you should allow it...im looking you vaccine.....im so sick of the "indies" the games are just so low quality more times then not.

The problem is that they were banking on Labo having the appeal of a Wii Sports, and it didn't happen. My daughter and I had fun putting it together, but once we fiddled with each of the toys that we had constructed, we put them away and never touched them again. They essentially had Labo to take them through the entire year because games like Kirby, Mario Tennis, and DKC: Tropical Freeze weren't going to sell Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild numbers. Their release schedule in '17 was brilliant because, every couple of months, they had something big coming out: Zelda at launch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in May, Arms in June, Splatoon 2 in July, Mario + Rabbids in August, Mario Odyssey in October, Xenoblade 2 in December! That's an insane list of killer games for the first year, coupled with the fact that ports of Doom, Skyrim, and the like also launched!

2019, I believe, will more closely mirror 2017. Time will tell.

@Almighty-Koz
I'm adult 34 years old but i prefer Kiddie games on Switch.
Nintendo should add more good Girlie games (Imagine series by Ubisoft, Style Savvy, Cooking Mama, Barbie, Disney Princess, etc) on Switch just like during NDS / 3DS era.

@Almighty-Koz I am so sick of see Astro Bears and bulb boy or whatever its called, almost every single week something like that is on sale. Then the good games are way more expensive on the Switch than another console and they new put first party games on sale.
I understand that stuff like Yooka Laylee and other mulit platform games came out later on the Switch. But, Nintendo knows that the Switch is primarily selling as a second system. So why would i buy games like that for double the price on Switch.

2018 sucked. I didn't buy a single 1st party game until Let's Go and Smash, and only Smash was a high-quality amazing title. Pokemon was simply meh and disappointing

They need big 3rd party games. But the switches power prevents that. So now, they need to invest in 3rd party exclusives like bayonetta.

@Anti-Matter But you aren't the majority. An those games are not system seller. Zelda and Mario are system sellers but we only get those once in a blue moon

The NintenDoomed fandom are so lacking they grab onto anything they can get their grubby hands on. Even if the 20mil was overly estimated they did quite well for being only about 2 years out. And yet the the NintenDoomed latch onto the Shareholder spewing their NintenDoomed mindset.

This man is going to take Nintendo Switch well past 100 million. Maybe even DS level. Watch. I believe in him.

@earthinheritor and your not the majority as well but a minority whom seems to think they think for the rest. Which is even sadder here. Your own metric game comparisons is already lacking if you can only site two games as to why the Switch sells far better then the NintenDoom camp your from.

@Lionyone
Scrapping the dock from the console would only save a few pounds (about £5-6 in manufacturing), but that decision would immediately scupper the major Switch selling point of being able to dock and become a 'home console'

@SwitchForce
,.....and in English?

He almost sounds disappointed, similarly to EA's "disappointment" with Battlefield's monumental 7+ million copies sold.

This is the problem with a publicly-traded company; no amount of success is ever enough for the narrow-minded shareholders that run it.

@Lionyone you missed the point of the hybrid already. It will make it less but then one needs to calc the price if you have to buy a dock and the price you pay would cost the same if not more because you pay the price+TAX and that would make the Switch you got without dock cost more. Only benefit would be those solely going portable with clear choice not using the Dock then it would be cheaper but we all know here you will go to use a Dock. Those that buy without is for Price reason not because it's going portable. So we need to distinguish this from those thinking it's cheaper mindset.

@FredTheCat then ESL for you might be in the cards.

Seriously, every time they set their goals so high and fail to meet them they look worse and worse. We should be celebrating 17 million units last year but the headlines all say that they missed their target, and their stock fell accordingly. Nintendo always overshoots and fails to meet targets. It’s awful for their financial image.

@Kainbrightside you own reply lacks this "Diversity and Inclusion" this is why you failed in the reply. If you think the gamers are just Male then this is why the "Me Too" movement is coming full steam for you. Next time take a real pop count and see Female are more than 50% of the pop then come back for some real talk on Gamer Diversity.

@SwitchForce I wasn't going to sit here and list every game i could think of, I'm just going with more recent examples. As for my own metric, I have every system of the last 2 generations and back home i have everything back to the Atari 2600, for my current systems i have over 200 games easily with digital and physicals. I also play a bit of everything. About the only thing i dont play is sports games. I'm playing Kindgom Hearts at the moment but after that I'm going to Far Cry. I will play pretty much anything I can get my hands on, time permitting of course.

As for you saying im in the NintendoDoom game. My Wii U is still hooked up and fully functioning, As it my Switch, and my 3ds gets a play every now and then when i want something portable other than Switch. I have bought, and still own, every Nintendo system from SNES on.

I dont think Nintendo is going anywhere and i dont want them too. Hell i preorder Metroid in 2017 when they just showed a logo and i preordered Pokemon Lets Go as well. I love Nintendo, but they dont appeal to a broad audience. Man i wish they did, i would love to see them do something and take a risk.

@SwitchForce
If you are going to try insulting my grasp of my first language, then
1. You might want to learn about punctuation
2. Learn the difference between, and when to use, "your" or "you're".

@tysonfury In the minds of modern consumers, yes. Although it is getting a boost for actually being portable.
Otherwise, it's another underpowered machine with none of the Influencers' blessing and no access to technically impressive games and features only "friendly" games that a niche population enjoys. Oh, and Pro Controllers are bloody expensive.
An okay proposition for core fans, but absolutely cannot drive Wii-like sales (since that seems to be what Nintendo wants to recapture).

@Anti-Matter

With all due respect, those are NOT the games that Switch needs more of, at least if you're talking about games that will sell a console. Nintendo needs games like Pokemon, games with broad appeal like the Wii series, games for old-school Nintendo fans like myself and others (Punch Out, F-Zero, Starfox.....I would even love to see a new Star Tropics, which will never happen), games like The Sims (we're in agreement on that one), etc. Switch doesn't need a Cooking Mama because there are already 500,000,000 of them, and Overcooked is a vastly superior game anyway. Besides, Switch doesn't have the motion sensing capabilities of Wii so why would you want a lesser version of what came before?

I get that you like kiddy/"girly" games, but isn't quality important as well? Name me one Barbie game that was well designed. I'll wait.

@Dringo
Good point. I actually forgot about labo...lol. Now I remember it was s***.

@nessisonett I agree. Unless portability is more important to them. I’ve played Switch a couple hours total in hand held mode. So I’m always going with the superior version of the game.
Nintendo’s innovation with games has been poor lately. They aren’t taking their franchises to the next level... they are only adding an HD coat.

The lack of major third party games hurts it - particularly Western games. And the lack of major 1st party games prior to Pokemon in Nov (Nov!) was a problem as a result.

The simple fact that my two most anticipated 3rd party games of the last 6 months (KH3 and AC Odyssey) are not available on Switch means that people like me won't be buying and playing games on Switch.

@WOLF13 I tend to prefer games on Switch, even if they are less pretty, Simple reason why is that Switch is 95% portable for me and portability far outweights nice visuals to me

So the Big N were only 3 million consoles short of their goal, I wouldn't jump to the doom and gloom conclusion.

I feel announcing some big hitters will get more people to buy the Switch. Hell who knows, maybe the teased big unannounced game that they're talking about will help draw people in.

If they can release titles with the quality of Smash during the next fiscal year, and accomodate the launches through april to december, they'll easily get 20 million, if not more, Switch units sold.

Back to PS4 after Apex Legends came out

I don't think that's the problem. The problem is, imho, a lackluster third-party support, versions of multiplatform games that are released on Switch later than in other systems, or the disappointment the online service has been for many (not my case).

Failure to convey console's appeal was the reason behind the demise of Wii U, though.

@Ooccoo_Jr while I'd agree, seems that stock holders don't agree with you. Hence why stock prices fell after the announcement

Nintendo had only 5 new games this year:
2 of witch, Kirby and Mario tennis weren’t exactly system sellers and aside from ports we had nothing to move systems for the first half of the fiscal year

Mario party isn’t a huge system seller as well
So only Pokémon and smash were out there to really push things ( and both preformed much better than anyone expected) but 2 games is not enough

This year is much different, we have tons of big hitters spreading around the year (kicking off with Yoshi in March, fire emblem coming in the spring, Animal crossing or Luigi’s mansion (or both) coming in the summer, the new IPs Town and deamon x machina will be somewhere as well, some kind of unannounced Zelda and Mario sport are very likely, and of course Pokémon will dominate the holiday season, Some big 3rd parties are coming as well as some we u ports to support the line up and who knows what else....

@BanjoPickles
"Switch doesn't need a Cooking Mama because there are already 500,000,000 of them, and Overcooked is a vastly superior game anyway. Besides, Switch doesn't have the motion sensing capabilities of Wii so why would you want a lesser version of what came before?"

Say hello to Waku Waku Sweets : Amai Okashi ga Dekiru Kana on Nintendo Switch, the FIRST "Cooking Mama" game on Nintendo Switch. 🤓

Cooking Mama and Overcooked are two Different games. Overcooked was felt like Dinner Dash with Platformer aspect while Cooking Mama was a Cooking game with step by step cooking process.

And remember, gamers are not just only dominated by males. What about Female gamers ?
And don't forget Last year we got some really Kiddie Switch games (Little Friends : Cats and Dogs, Neko Tomo)

Btw, Style Savvy from Nintendo was the Good example of Good Girlie games. 😏

And about Barbie, Erm.... their games were still mediocre compared with other Girlie games by different developers. 😳
But at least, girlie games on Switch are perfect for gap filler better than nothing. 😅

17 million console sales is a strong second year. A very strong second year. Their targets where higher because they expected LABO to attract in new audiences. But it didn't.

Nevertheless, 17 million is super impressive. It's more than the first year. And they expect next year to be bigger again

Every time this guy opens his mouth the more I really, really, really dislike this guy. He's an empty suit stuffed shirt MBA corporate BS-er, not a man with a pulse on the company and products. In typical corporate-BS-er fashion he spouts nonsensical drivel that investors expect to hear regardless of if it's true and makes no sense.

Iwata's financial briefings were a master class in skill, knowledge, finesse, and the ability to balance shareholder concerns against reality and long term company imperatives. This guy spouts whatever the board wants and makes it up as he goes along. Furukawa is no Iwata. He's "investor friendly". But he's no leader, no visionary, and doesn't even understand his own plans.

Switch sales were below expectations not just due to lack of "conveying appeal", there was no need to make up some "we didn't do enough marketing initiative" story when the reality is simpler, cleaner, and not even offensive to investors. There was a limited new software output during the highlighted slow growth months to connect to new hardware sales. Additionally, there were two key software delays into FY2019. Finally Labo did not account for as much growth as they anticipated (which they acknowledged separately) That's it. No hand wringing exercise, no "conveying the functionality", hard, factual data already stated elsewhere in their report that easily accounts for a small undershoot in hardware, while software overperformed.

Why does he need to make up anything beyond that? Unless he either doesn't understand the numbers game since he came from the marketing sphere of the company, or unless he's just so used to BSing things that he makes Reggie look amateur and does it by default.

Iwata was an expert leader and wove tapestries with words. Kimishima was a steady hand and man of no more words than the minimum that was needed to address a specific issue. Yamauchi....was pretty much a Yakuza strongman who needed only wave a finger and everyone accepted his demands, rational or not. Furukawa is a squishy 21st century C-suite exec who would be better served moving to the US and running any one of our oligopoly tech firm's "public" powerless shell corps.

They MESSED up... that’s for sure. Relying only on the last months of the year and betting all on smash and Poemon Let’s Go! wasn’t a great bet.

Personally I would loved to see some more effort than only in the last months of a year.

@zever I wouldn't worry about it. The share price fell after the Switch reveal event because everyone thought it would be a flop. Goes to show that the market does not always know what it's talking about.

I think they need more third party “big titles” to announce, exclusively. Not something mediocre like the new “No More Heroes” spin-off, they need something big. I absolutely love all the ports coming, but i wonder if say a new “exclusive” wouldn’t push or drive sales more. Marvel Ultimate Alliance i don’t think was big enough. I still believe Pokemon core game this year will change everything honestly.

When the other systems had next gen open world titles, massive Fps/ Rpgs brimming with contents, high profile well known titles while Nintendo only had Tennis / Cardboards / Kiddy ABCs Party games and they expected 20million???

Wth are they smokin.........its like expecting a fishing / golf game to win GOTY.....

I wanna say it took a lot of folk by surprise, kinda like they were jumping the gun. Like, that's A LOT of consoles, Nintendo... you sure about that?" I don't think anyone is surprised they cut that forecast. I said it on this site last year that that seems a bit much. Still, 17 million is a lot as well.

It already sold enough to prove pre-release naysayers wrong with the same subtlety as a brick wall to the face.

Which is A-OK in my book. Keep it up, Ninty: improving upon 2018, considering Smash DLC sales as Smash sales this year, is definitely possible; no need to even try topping 2017 though.

@Rhaoulos They’ve got NSMBU, Animal Crossing, Pokemon and Luigi’s Mansion this year and maybe one or two more big titles. That’s at least 4 for this year.

@Anti-Matter

Don't get me wrong, every game has it's place (I'll even vouch for awful games, whose entertainment value lies in their lack of quality), but you can get Cooking Mama on a million different platforms, and they were never great games to begin with (I got suckered in by the premise). Overcooked is a much different game, gameplay wise, but I can't imagine that Cooking Mama would be very fun in anything other than docked mode. As far as the pet games are concerned, it would be better if Nintendo would do a Switch version of Nintendogs/Cats, instead of the Switch getting the shoddy third party knock offs. Quality IS important.

@Anti-Matter Just wanted to say I REALLY appreciate your unphased reactions to your haters. Keep being you

@Hobbesyall @WebHead not sure if you guys know that Ninty is still in Quarter 4 (Jan - Mar) so Quarter 1 2019 starts in April. So they haven't started or done anything yet.

And lack of 3rd party support

@MaSSiVeRiCaN I did not know that ! Thank you! But still this quarter is terrible XD

@gloom

I agree. Even though him and I have very different tastes, he is always very respectful of others, while still standing firm on what he likes. Whether we agree or not, I personally have a lot of respect for him.

Some people talking about why buy inferior games if you have a ps4 and xbox one. I thought they already know the picture, because the switch is a hybrid that you play at home and on the go. that is a huge advantage that no other system has. Some of these inferior games also look and play pretty good on the system as well.

@Evilworm Oh stop it. They still did good. Kirby Star Allies, Smash Bros, Pokemon Let's Go, Pokken, Super Mario Odyssey, Octopath Traveler, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Breath of the Wild, Mario + Rabbids, Splatoon 2 and Arms would like a word with you.

@SwitchForce I certainly haven't missed the point of the hybrid. I use the Switch in dock and out of it every day. But that's me. I know there are many people who are put off by the price of the Switch. Simplest way to help them is to unbundle the dock as one of the bundles sold (let there be a dock bundle also). This addresses the problem that today in UK and USA, for various stty political reasons, most people have very little money. To make the Switch a device of truly mass popularity it needs to have its price of entry lowered. Don't worry about people not buying docks, most of them will sooner or later buy a dock also.
And why the hell is the dock so expensive anyways, what does the dock alone does do to justify its mad current £120- price? I personally would buy one or two more docks only if they were say £40 each, and I already have one dock. Nintendo is seemingly missing easy money here.

@SwitchForce I'm in UK. Tax is already included in all our prices. So a separate dock wouldn't cost any more in tax than a presently bundled dock. And as I've argued increased demand for docks could drive down dock prices. Similarly reduce Switch entry price to increase demand.

In my book 2018 had a game drought until August.
2019 could well be the same if Fire Emblem releases June July.

@CurryPowderKeg79: If I could give your comment more than one upvote, I would.

If Kingdom Hearts 3 and Resident Evil 2 Remake were on the Switch it might have helped quite a bit. Nintendo is getting better with 3rd parties,but it's still not where it's suppose to be.Nintendo would do better if they had some of the major 3rd party games with the same release date as the other consoles.1st party and indie games are just not enough.....well to me it's enough,but if you want to sell 20 millions consoles in such a short time you NEED the big 3rd parties to fill the gaps.

I mean since Smash we had Tales of Vesperia(which I adore,but Tales is still kinda sorta niche)and after that it's Yoshi,which looks fine,but it's not a super big game,it will do fine,but Odyssey it's not.We don't even know when the next big game is coming,so the Switch won't sell super well again until june maybe or even further then that.

Smash will continue to sell of course,but most people who wanted the game already got it I presume,it sold over 12 millions already.

It's funny how detached the top brass is from its products. The sales target failed due to the delay of Yoshi and Fire Emblem, as well as the terrible online service and the lack of compelling social features like built in chat/voice chat.

I am happy about the delays because it's ultimately gonna mean better games, but these elements are why it failed. Not because Nintendo didn't pull off some brainwashing commercial.

Nothing wrong with shooting for the moon but...considering this little beauty has outsold the Wii U's lifespan in what, 10 months was it? Isn't too shabby at all. N has a winner on its hands with a long life ahead of it still. I love mine, and look forward to what fun factor it will continue to provide.

@CurryPowderKeg79 With so little hate as well. When they came out apologizing for the Metroid Prime 4 thing, I was like..so? it doesn't matter. Just the fact it's being made is grand. Being made by the original company who did 1, 2 and 3, even more grand. So I say thank you for being committed.

Oh no, Nintendo is doomed! ...for like, the 10000th time in the last 2 years? Can't wait for next year when the Switch's selling numbers will still be good, but people will still continue to say that Nintendo is doomed. And the year after that. And then the year after that...and so on. Haters gonna hate i guess.

@Mando44646 I think you are like many Switch owners. Playing portable games is more important.
For me, portability was a feature I paid for that I didn’t want. I wanted to play Zelda on my tv screen. It seems a waste to play on a
Small screen.

New hardware it is then. Time to turn switch into that “family of systems” good ol Iwata talked about

"Insufficient Efforts To launch enough games with any Appeal"

There fixed it for you 😏

@tysonfury The GameCube had quite a few new first party I.P's though ?

Pikmin
Luigi's Mansion
Eternal Darkness
Battalion Wars
Chibi-Robo
Baten Kaitos
Doshin The Giant
Geist
Odama

This overshooting tactic is a common business practice and one that feeds into the 'leading through fear' to push employees harder. It's a shame Nintendo has begun to adopt this approach similar to EA and other big corporate companies. It's not something Iwata would have resorted to or employed in his management practices. I researched his methods of positive enforcement and shouldering responsibility for all issues before taking on a management role, they were highly successful for me too.

With the new young developers coming through and the importance of them sticking around for the long term it could be a risky move to make them feel like they are a disappointment to the people at the top.

No, it failed, because of the 3DS. Not only are 3DS releases now failing (software sales show that), but if they had put those same games onto Switch, that would be the little bit of extra momentum to reach 20 million. The Switch failed, because Nintendo keeps the asinine idea that it can now support 3 platforms (3DS, mobile, Switch), which it was VERY clear during the Wii U droughts that it cannot.

hahaha only in Japan can you accomplish the number selling console of the year and still apologize and feel SHHHAAAMEE

@electrolite77 compared to the DS in 2008 which sold 31.18 million systems and 197 million games it shows just how good Switch could be doing.

Ok you want to "convey the Switch's (or any platform's) appeal"? It starts and ends with the GAMES. Not a handful of AAA first-party titles (with only ONE...Smash Bros. Ultimate...dominating your entire sophomore year's E3 and Christmas season) and a handful of great third-party efforts buried beneath a veritable mountain of garbage eShop "Nindies". Not a paid online service whose primary selling point (cloud saves which would preserve your progress across multiple Switches in case your console somehow bricked) could and should have been unnecessary to begin with, and whose glacially-growing library of NES games screams "lack of effort or care". And certainly not the likes of Amiibo or $60 sets of glorified cardboard (Labo).

If the Switch's second year games (particularly the first-party titles which have always been Nintendo's primary system-movers) had managed to mirror the incredible offerings of the first, it's very likely they would have surpassed let alone reached that lofty 20 million goal. You could take away the online service, Amiibo and Labo, and 95-plus percent of current and future eShop offerings and it wouldn't make the least bit of difference. Great GAMES are what convince gamers to purchase a given platform, and during 2018, that took a back seat with regard to Nintendo's priorities for the Switch.

That said, I'm very optimistic for what the Switch will offer in 2019 and beyond, such as Animal Crossing, the new Fire Emblem, Metroid Prime 4, and others. Again, as always, it comes down to the GAMES and ONLY the GAMES. They're what we buy your systems for, Nintendo; please don't lose sight of that amidst all of your recent "portfolio diversification".

No Shat Sherlock, by copyright claiming Youtube videos Nintendo discouraged gamers from streaming their games: of course fewer people knew about the system.

"Oh Switch, I've heard of it, it's like a portable Wii U right? They said Wii U was a failure, then this Switch must be a failure too... no wonder so few people stream Nintendo games."

@Alantor28

Only Xbc2 / Botw is AAA standard of games. The rest, for your lil'baby.

I thought they did a good job this past year advertising the system, but there weren't enough new games coming out to really push units. I bet they would have easily sold more systems if Super Mario Maker was announced for the Switch, and not "New" Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe.
That said, I can understand that they're trying to cut their losses with the Wii U by selling its games on the Switch, including NSMBU, which wouldn't sell as well if there was already a Mario game with a level editor available, so they probably wanted to port NSMBU first.
Let's hope Super Mario Maker 2 is one of those unannounced titles for the Switch.

@Jese_1 Right, Cash Grabs like Wii U ports aren't going to do it.

@Nicolai because 3 million switches equates to almost 1 billion quid.

There was far too much of a reliance on Nindies. Being a core gamer I love the design of some of them, but it is AAA games that sell systems, not the indies.

Also the pricing of Switch games still remains too high. Nintendo needs to have sales like Sony does to make it more appealing to parents etc.

1 billion quid standing next to 6 billion is about as impactful as 3 next to 17.

@LunarFlame17 Nothing?

lol They could have had more AAA games in the pipeline. Nintendo was underprepared and did not carry any momentum into the beginning of 2018.

Sounds like old-school Japanese self-flaggelation to me. "Please accept my apologies for being human."

or you could just release more recognizable games. that would probably work too. there are also too many indie games. its too hard to tell whats good and whats garbage. they also need to be their own section on eshop. though nintendo wont do that because it would make their selection seem more barren. honestly this could all be solved just by discontinuing the 3ds. once its officially dead, all those developers will migrate over to switch.

this could have been avoided with a January direct

Like others have said, there were too few good exclusive first party games this year. Tona of great third party support and Indies, but they didn't have the big wow factor to surprise people throughout the year. The only major hitters that put a lot of sales out for the Nintendo Switch came out at the end of the year. I have a feeling this year will be much different for first party support. I can't say for certain the sales to the high standards that Nintendo has set for themselves will happen, but it will be interesting to watch especially considering that I don't feel like all the third party games coming out this year are system sellers. As for me, I am an innocent bystander in their epic struggle for console supremacy. So glad I am the consumer.

@KayFiOS I would definitely be down for a new Super Mario Maker myself. Or maybe a new type of "maker" game!

the simple reason - not enough first-party games !
..in the first year we got Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, of which the first two are considered one of the best games ever made!
..in 2018 we got Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, also one of the insta classic of all time, but the game came out in December 2018, meaning Jan - Nov 2018 we had absolutely nothing what could have boosted the sales (yes, we got very good Octopath Traveller, but this is not the type of a game which interests as many Nintendo fans as the noted games above)
..in 2019 we were told by Nintendo that the company has 6 unannounced games to be released, so i really hope this will bring the same success as we witnessed in 2017

Cmon Nintendo, we need a lot of info about Bayonetta 3, Shin Megami Tensei V, new Pokemon, also the mysterious Town, etc. It seems as if Nintendo dropped off after the first amazing year of the Switch existence

the year-on-year sales increase during the first half of the fiscal year (April to September) turned out not big enough. Well maybe they should release more games, spent more money on advertising, make more deals for exclusive titles with third parties etc.

@roboshort Very true, but only pokemon is as big as a Zelda or main Mario game. I was talking about the kind of game you buy a console for, like pokemon (very good example), metroid, zelda, a 3d mario, etc...

@Rhaoulos I’d say Animal Crossing is as big as Mario or Zelda. They typically sell 10 million plus. It’s one of Nintendo’s big franchises

However, I think the price of the Switch might turn off Animal Crossing fans. Nintendo needs a cheaper model.

I think all the rumors of a hardware revision is hurting sales. If people would strongly prefer a Mini or Pro version, they'd rather wait then buy a regular model and regret it if a revision comes out. Their current stance of "We have nothing to say at this time" leans toward "We have a hardware revision in mind. We're just not ready to announce it yet" rather then "it's not happening ever." Considering the past three handheld generations and the hardware changes made during each generation, a Mini or Pro version isn't far fetched. When it will release is the better question. Could be this year, could be next, could 2021 for all we know.

This could very well be a massive year for them, but it will be slow until at least April or May. The FF 7 Remake could have been a huge system seller, even if we had to wait a bit, I just don't see a simple port selling that many systems. Hopefully, it will at least be the enhanced PS4 version now that we know it will not be a remake.

Switch: the next failure by Nintendo- says it right there, "FAILED"! The reason why was because of the 3DS, if that 2 million sales had gone to Switch instead, it wouldn't have failed as much as it did, causing them to lower their fiscal year forecast. Too bad too, Switch seemed like a good system until it started failing- "FAIL" right there in the headline, quit arguing!