Was that just a peaceful transfer of power or is something else going on?
I think it was only ever meant to be an interim role.
Nintendo has made several comments about wanting leadership in the hands of much younger people. There have been references to this happening throughout the company.
He’s a Famicom kid according to the articles I’ve read and yes, Kimishima is 68. This was the plan all along. Kimishima guided the Switch to market and the new President will now guide the growth.
Going out on top is underrated, and now is probably the best time he will ever have to do it.
I think it also eases in the new guy. The system is successful. It’s harder to screw it up.
Jason Schreier has a write-up about Nintendo’s earnings report for 2017, breaking down the performance of the hardware and the software.
Switch has now sold 17.79 million units, which is four million more than the Wii U (13.56m) has sold in its lifetime. For context, Nintendo had forecast 15 million and analysts had estimated 16 million. Reality was closer to 18 million.
Super Mario Odyssey is the best-selling Switch game at 10.41 million copies, which means that 58% of Switches have a plumber with them.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has sold 9.22 million copies, outselling the Wii U’s Mario Kart 8, which is at 8.42 million. Mario Kart 8 came out in May of 2014, while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has now been out for less than a year.
Breath of the Wild is now the best-selling Zelda game of all time, with 8.48 million copies sold on Switch and more than a million on Wii U. The previous best-selling Zelda was Twilight Princess, which launched simultaneously on Wii and GameCube in 2006.
Other figures include Splatoon 2 selling over 6 million copies, with Xenoblade 2 and the new Kirby moving over a million units.
Mario Kart Wii sales will never be topped again.
I remember random old people in restaurant tables nearby talking about Mario Kart Wii. After people got the Wii for Wii Bowling, a lot of them apparently got Mario Kart Wii.
Breath of the Wild is now the best-selling Zelda game to date. 10 million sold since March release, with 8.48 million on Switch and 1.5 million on Wii U.
Also, a bit on the news conference:
Along with Furukawa’s appointment, three younger executives will also replace retiring senior managers. Among the new appointees is Yoshiaki Koizumi, a key architect of the Switch, and Takashi Tezuka, who was tasked with modernizing Super Mario.
Sounds serious:
“I grew up playing the Famicom and come from that generation,” Furukawa said. “Now as a member of management with Super Mario’s creator Shigeru Miyamoto, I have a lot of respect for him. On the other hand, with this new job that can’t just be it, so I expect to say what needs to be said to run the company.”
Why the hell is that a line graph?!?
Nintendo have outlined their plans for E3 2018. The video presentation will be on June 12 and will focus on games releasing this year:
As in recent years, Nintendo will focus its E3 activities on games coming soon, with a special spotlight given to a key headlining title: the recently announced Super Smash Bros. game coming to the Nintendo Switch system this year. Games launching beyond 2018 will be featured at a later date.
Only Polygon will ever know…
Nintendo finally reveals the Switch console online details.
September
$20 a year
Cloud saves
20 NES games with added online features
My guess is it’ll launch with or very shortly before Smash.
You don’t really have to guess. It says it’s launching in September :P
Virtual Console is tied to the service now apparently.
Guessing at the Smash release date :)
That would be a terrible idea, imo. Better to launch before the release date to make sure there aren’t any major launch snafus.
Also, the 20 per year is for a single member. There’s also a family option for 35 for up to 8 people.
According to Kotaku, VC is not coming to switch.
This service will be something else entirely.
I wonder if it just means that the games I owned on virtual console on Wii will still be released on Switch, but they’ll just have to be bought again.