Nintendo is focusing on its basic strategy of expanding the number of people who have access to its intellectual property (IP), company president Shuntaro Furukawa said during a recent financial results briefing.
Toward that end, Furukawa said Nintendo will continue pursuing the design and development of “unique products and services that are overwhelmingly fun to play and whose appeal is easy to understand at a glance.”
“This serves as an engine for Nintendo’s growth and boosts our value as a company,” Furukawa said.
The company’s basic strategy initiatives include three main pillars: the dedicated video game platform business, the mobile business, and the IP expansion business. Each has a different purpose and scale, Furukawa said, but they’re all considered critical to the company.
Video game hardware and software remain Nintendo’s core business. The company also plans to increase the profitability of hte mobile business by maintaining and expanding services for existing titles while creating new ones. As for IP expansion, Furukawa said Nintendo will mainly work through partnerships to introduce its IP to people in areas other than video games.
Nintendo Account will apparently play a big role in building long-term relationships with consumers as well. “Initiatives like My Nintendo and our efforts to strengthen Nintendo Switch Online and the digital business are all linked within our business based on the use of Nintendo Account,” Furukawa said. “We are using Nintendo Account to enhance consumer satisfaction and build continuing close and trusting relationships with them. Both the active use of Nintendo IP and the promotion of business based on the use of Nintendo Account have increasing points of contact with consumers in common, and we intend to use the combination of these two as a foothold to continue stabilizing revenue and boosting profitability.”
Despite a strong holiday season, Nintendo recently lowered its sales forecast for the Switch console. It now expects to sell about 17 million units, down from its original goal of 20 million. But, it also increased its Switch game sales forecast by 10 million and believes it will sell 110 million games for the system by the end of the fiscal year in March.