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The desire for households to own multiple Switch consoles could propel sales of Nintendo’s new hardware to Wii-like levels.
That appears to be the hope of Nintendo boss Tatsumi Kimishima, who made the bold claim to investors.
In the video game business, it’s important for consumers to feel that a sales momentum is going to grow, and we are setting a standard with Nintendo Switch to release a continuous string of major software titles from now on,” he said.
And if our sales go according to our plan this fiscal year, we will be able to see Nintendo Switch gaining the momentum in which it can approach relative parity with Wii afterwards.
Plus, considering that Nintendo Switch is a home console video game system that you can take with you on the go so you can play anytime, anywhere, with anyone, we think there will be households that feel as though one is not really enough. This is another point that drives us to match the scale of Wii’s popularity with Nintendo Switch.”
Kimishima added that the company has greatly increased the quantity [of Switch hardware units] we can produce in a single month”, although he still predicts that demand will prevent it from building up any significant inventory.
For us, being able to reach an installed base of more than 10m units is fundamental to creating a strong business in a number of different ways,” he continued. Shipping 10m hardware units this fiscal year, as planned, will give publishers and the rest of our business partners a sense that the future of Nintendo Switch is more promising.
The truth is we want to raise the installed base of Nintendo Switch up to the same level as Wii.”
The sentiment echoes that made by GameStop’s senior director of merchandising last month.
