As part of Nintendo’s annual financial results call, President Shuntaro Furukawa was asked questions by those in attendance. While the bulk of the information from said call was released via their annual financial report two weeks ago, Nintendo has only recently released an English transcript for those questions and Mr. Furukawa’s responses. It should be noted that this transcript is marked as edited in part, but it is stated to be for clarity and readability, likely as a factor of being translated.
There is little content here that has not already been covered in some capacity already as some of these responses were already translated or at least paraphrased by different people. It was clear that those on the call were concerned about the impacts of COVID-19 going forward. There was also however interest in China as well as digital sales numbers including the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service.
Photographer: Yuki Furukawa/Bloomberg
There were probably two things of note in Mr. Furukawa’s responses. The first being that he still did not comment regarding the rumors of Nintendo Switch component supply line issues, but he did at least clarify that he could not speak regarding the matter due to the fact that it related to other companies’ businesses, so it essentially was not his place to make any statements on that front.
The second thing of note is that Mr. Furukawa seemed to downplay mobile development. When asked about mobile development, Mr. Furukawa responded that no announcements were planned and that Nintendo is “not necessarily looking to continue releasing many new applications for the mobile market.” He did, however, continue that development of mobile applications would continue as they have, primarily focusing on IP development and using the apps to bring in new consumers to Nintendo franchises. He particularly cited Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp and Animal Crossing: New Horizons and how they have impacted one another’s player base in recent weeks.
If you want to read the full transcript for yourself, you can do so via Nintendo’s official PDF copy.
