Time Between Switch’s Announcement And Launch Was A “Special Case”, Says Nintendo

The official translation of Nintendo’s financial Q&A for the recently-released figures is now available to view online, in which the company’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, discusses the time between the Switch’s announcement and its release, hinting that the same may not be applied to future consoles.

This comes from the final question in the briefing, where Furukawa was asked whether he deems the gap between the Switch’s announcement and launch as a success in terms of the console’s marketing. In response, Furukawa describes the time between the two as a “special case”, before suggesting that this is not necessarily the timeframe that the company will be applying in the future.

When we announced our entry into the mobile business at that time, we needed to let people know that Nintendo would be continuing to focus on the dedicated video game platform business as our core
business. So, I believe that the timing of the Nintendo Switch announcement was a special case.

We will provide information about hardware and software at the appropriate time for each product and strive to reach a wide range of consumers.

To be clear, this is not a confirmation of when the next Nintendo console will be released, nor the length of time that we can expect to be waiting between its announcement and launch. Nonetheless, it is interesting that the company appears to not view the Switch’s early timeline as the method for marketing new hardware going forward.

Elsewhere, the Nintendo president was asked whether he views the Switch’s increasing number of annual playing users as a reason to not release a new console. While Furukawa stated that the numbers will not sway the company’s decision to release new hardware, its focus remains on “maintaining and expanding the utilization of Nintendo Switch”:

We do not believe that reaching a certain number of annual playing users means that there is no need to release a next-generation platform. I cannot say anything specific about a next-generation platform at this time, but we are always working on various projects aimed at the future by asking ourselves what kind of fun proposal we can make which can possibly provide new and unique entertainment.

Expectedly, no news about what is next in terms of consoles came from the Q&A, but the above hint towards “new and unique entertainment” has us speculating about what could potentially be in the works nonetheless.

Be sure to check out the full Q&A on the Nintendo site to see Furukawa’s thoughts on the above topics as well as the Mario Movie, expanding the company’s IP reach, and more.

When do you think that the next Nintendo console will be announced? Give us your predictions in the comments below.