by In a interview with Vice Waypoint Reggie said that even more Switch games will be announced in 2017.
Waypoint: So, Reggie, great to see you again. E3 2017 is here, and for me the big push for Switch this year, for Nintendo this year, was, at least for the Spotlight, was "Hey, we have Switch games coming. We have a lot of games coming this year, a lot of them are multiplayer focused, and by the holiday, we will have a really respectable catalogue." And then there were also a few gestures towards the future: Yoshi, Kirby, Metroid Prime 4, Pokémon. And I'm curious what you thought of the response to those promises so far. Has that been largely positive, or mixed, or–
RFA: The response to what we've showcased, and it really is just a small tip for 2018, has been exceptionally positive. You've got fans seeing Metroid Prime 4, hearing that Mr. Tanabe, who's been involved in all of the Metroid Prime games, is going to be at the helm of that, the fans are tremendously excited. To hear that there's going to be a core Pokémon RPG experience on the Nintendo Switch, the fans are incredibly excited. To see a traditional Kirby experience, with him inhaling enemies and copying abilities, fans are excited about that. And then the Yoshi game that we showcased, with that unique, you know, motion to go "behind-the-scenes," so to speak, has people really intrigued. So just by showcasing those four games, and giving a little bit of a taste, yeah there's a lot of excitement to what 2018 can hold.
But to be clear, we look at E3 in the here and now. Our focus is on games that are largely going to be available between now and the end of the holiday season. And when you look at that lineup, there's a strong game coming literally every month, starting tomorrow with Arms, and then Splatoon 2, then in August is the Mario + Rabbids game, September, October with Super Mario Odyssey. We've got that great pace of content, and I can tell you there's more to be announced.
Waypoint: So, three things there actually to jump off of, first let's talk about getting more Switch hardware to the marketplace. You committed this week that you're going to kind of, pump-up more production, get the Switch out there. In plain words, what happened there? Was that just kind of running things really tightly, running the ship as tightly as possible, was it a discrepancy in the understanding of demand?
RFA: So, again, to unpack this, for March we had publicly committed that we would sell-in 2 million units. Where actually, we sold-through, so not even sell-in, sold-through 2.7 million units.
So, clearly that's a signal that we are aggressively producing the hardware. You look at what we've now committed for the next twelve month time frame, 10 million units, what's interesting is if you look at that roughly 54 week time frame, that includes just one holiday season, that means that we will have sold into retail roughly, roughly 13 million units. That's about the same as what we did for the Wii, to put it in perspective. So, we're talking large significant numbers that we are producing, that we are flowing into retail. So it's not a situation where we've somehow under called the production or had some issue. It really is a situation where the demand is extremely strong and we're working hard to catch up.
Waypoint: So, the second question I have that jumps off of that previous one is that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is doing incredibly well, that's also, there's obviously some new stuff there but, much of that game was available on the Wii U, and I think it took a little time for me to wrap my head around why it was coming out so soon on the Switch, and then I realized, well, completely honestly, a lot of people didn't play a lot of great Wii U games. Can we expect more of those Wii U games to find a home on the Switch, as a way of reaching a larger install base?
RFA: What I would say is this: the observation you have that, given the install base of Wii U, there was some fantastic content that consumers did not get to play. So that creates certainly a business opportunity. On the other hand, one of the things that we've discussed internally is, there really needs to be an additional element to that game to make it fresh, and to further compel the consumer to buy in.
I think the best example of that is Pokkén Tournament Deluxe. Additional fighters, that gives the fan a reason to buy into it. Same is true with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, providing a mode that the consumers wanted in terms of a better battle mode, that was then included in that game. And so, I think the way we will continue to evaluate this is: yes, do we have opportunities with great games that maybe were not played as broadly on the Wii U, but then what's the plus alpha that's going to make it really compelling for the consumer?
Finally, Reggie comments on Animal Crossing mobile being on-track for this year...
RFA: So, specifically now, Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing development continues quite strongly, the teams are very excited about what they have. It's an application that is going to launch this year, as we've committed. And we'll be sharing more information in due course. We believe, just as we've seen with Pokémon Go, just as we've seen with Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, we believe that the application will help broaden the user base for Animal Crossing, and it's going to end up having a positive impact on our dedicated video game business of Animal Crossing.
Source
I think Nintendo will announce a new Animal Crossing for Switch in a Animal Crossing Direct this Fall, I think they might also announce Smash for Switch at EVO with how much there pushing esports lately. There's also sure to be a number of indie games coming to the Switch this year.
Waypoint: So, Reggie, great to see you again. E3 2017 is here, and for me the big push for Switch this year, for Nintendo this year, was, at least for the Spotlight, was "Hey, we have Switch games coming. We have a lot of games coming this year, a lot of them are multiplayer focused, and by the holiday, we will have a really respectable catalogue." And then there were also a few gestures towards the future: Yoshi, Kirby, Metroid Prime 4, Pokémon. And I'm curious what you thought of the response to those promises so far. Has that been largely positive, or mixed, or–
RFA: The response to what we've showcased, and it really is just a small tip for 2018, has been exceptionally positive. You've got fans seeing Metroid Prime 4, hearing that Mr. Tanabe, who's been involved in all of the Metroid Prime games, is going to be at the helm of that, the fans are tremendously excited. To hear that there's going to be a core Pokémon RPG experience on the Nintendo Switch, the fans are incredibly excited. To see a traditional Kirby experience, with him inhaling enemies and copying abilities, fans are excited about that. And then the Yoshi game that we showcased, with that unique, you know, motion to go "behind-the-scenes," so to speak, has people really intrigued. So just by showcasing those four games, and giving a little bit of a taste, yeah there's a lot of excitement to what 2018 can hold.
But to be clear, we look at E3 in the here and now. Our focus is on games that are largely going to be available between now and the end of the holiday season. And when you look at that lineup, there's a strong game coming literally every month, starting tomorrow with Arms, and then Splatoon 2, then in August is the Mario + Rabbids game, September, October with Super Mario Odyssey. We've got that great pace of content, and I can tell you there's more to be announced.
Waypoint: So, three things there actually to jump off of, first let's talk about getting more Switch hardware to the marketplace. You committed this week that you're going to kind of, pump-up more production, get the Switch out there. In plain words, what happened there? Was that just kind of running things really tightly, running the ship as tightly as possible, was it a discrepancy in the understanding of demand?
RFA: So, again, to unpack this, for March we had publicly committed that we would sell-in 2 million units. Where actually, we sold-through, so not even sell-in, sold-through 2.7 million units.
So, clearly that's a signal that we are aggressively producing the hardware. You look at what we've now committed for the next twelve month time frame, 10 million units, what's interesting is if you look at that roughly 54 week time frame, that includes just one holiday season, that means that we will have sold into retail roughly, roughly 13 million units. That's about the same as what we did for the Wii, to put it in perspective. So, we're talking large significant numbers that we are producing, that we are flowing into retail. So it's not a situation where we've somehow under called the production or had some issue. It really is a situation where the demand is extremely strong and we're working hard to catch up.
Waypoint: So, the second question I have that jumps off of that previous one is that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is doing incredibly well, that's also, there's obviously some new stuff there but, much of that game was available on the Wii U, and I think it took a little time for me to wrap my head around why it was coming out so soon on the Switch, and then I realized, well, completely honestly, a lot of people didn't play a lot of great Wii U games. Can we expect more of those Wii U games to find a home on the Switch, as a way of reaching a larger install base?
RFA: What I would say is this: the observation you have that, given the install base of Wii U, there was some fantastic content that consumers did not get to play. So that creates certainly a business opportunity. On the other hand, one of the things that we've discussed internally is, there really needs to be an additional element to that game to make it fresh, and to further compel the consumer to buy in.
I think the best example of that is Pokkén Tournament Deluxe. Additional fighters, that gives the fan a reason to buy into it. Same is true with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, providing a mode that the consumers wanted in terms of a better battle mode, that was then included in that game. And so, I think the way we will continue to evaluate this is: yes, do we have opportunities with great games that maybe were not played as broadly on the Wii U, but then what's the plus alpha that's going to make it really compelling for the consumer?
Finally, Reggie comments on Animal Crossing mobile being on-track for this year...
RFA: So, specifically now, Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing development continues quite strongly, the teams are very excited about what they have. It's an application that is going to launch this year, as we've committed. And we'll be sharing more information in due course. We believe, just as we've seen with Pokémon Go, just as we've seen with Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, we believe that the application will help broaden the user base for Animal Crossing, and it's going to end up having a positive impact on our dedicated video game business of Animal Crossing.
Source
I think Nintendo will announce a new Animal Crossing for Switch in a Animal Crossing Direct this Fall, I think they might also announce Smash for Switch at EVO with how much there pushing esports lately. There's also sure to be a number of indie games coming to the Switch this year.
