As reported Kyodo News, the CEO of Nintendo spoke on the issue during the general meeting of shareholders which took place this Friday in Kyoto. In addition to being reassuring about the pace of production of the material, Shuntarô Furukawa also assured that the pandemic has not caused any noticeable delay in the development of the games that Nintendo plans to release on Switch this year. However, the CEO warns that a new wave of COVID-19 will not be without consequences for the release schedule.
For now, the console’s second semester program is still unclear beyond Paper Mario: The Origami King, which will be released on July 17. According to Jeff Grubb of VentureBeat, the pandemic has had an impact on the planning of Nintendo’s summer announcements. The absence of Nintendo Direct in June is clearly a step in this direction. However, it seems accepted here and there that a large collection of Super Mario game remasters will soon be unveiled to honor the plumber’s 35 years.
Despite these disruptions, it is worth remembering that Nintendo has been able to distribute enough Switch worldwide to break records since the beginning of the year. In the United States, between January and May 2020, the Switch made more sales (in value) than any other platform during the first five months of previous years (NPD figures). In Japan, Nintendo has sold 2.5 million Switch since January, against 1.4 million last year at the same stage (Famitsu figures).
So many signals that Nintendo, which sold 21 million Switch worldwide during the year ended March 2020, may well exceed its expectations for the current year (which are currently delivering 19 million consoles) .
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