Japanese video-game maker Nintendo said Tuesday that it will make an announcement about a successor to its Switch home console sometime before March 2025.
In reporting its financial results, Nintendo gave no details
about the announcement, including about whether it would launch that successor
product during this fiscal year, or just announce its plans for it.
“We will make an announcement about the successor to
Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year. It will have been over nine years
since we announced the existence of Nintendo Switch back in March 2015,” the
company’s president, Shuntaro Furukawa, said in a statement.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. reported a 13% rise in profit for
the fiscal year that ended in March, boosted by solid demand for Switch
software like “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”
Nintendo’s net profit for the fiscal year through March 2024
totaled 490.6 billion yen ($3 billion), up from 432.7 billion yen in the
previous fiscal year. Annual sales rose 4% to 1.67 trillion yen ($11 billion),
nearly 80% of it from outside Japan.
Besides “The Legend of Zelda,” whose global sales for the
fiscal year totaled 20.6 million units, “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” sold 13.4
million units, and “Pikmin 4” sold nearly 3.5 million, according to Nintendo.
The release a year ago of the film, “The Super Mario Bros.
Movie,” also helped sales.
The yen’s weakness against the dollar, which lifts the value
in yen of overseas earnings of Japanese exporters like Nintendo, also helped.
The U.S. dollar has averaged about 151 Japanese yen over the past fiscal year,
up from 133 yen in the previous fiscal year.
Nintendo, which did not break down quarterly numbers, was
less optimistic about its financial results for the fiscal year through March
2025, forecasting net profit to fall to 300 billion yen ($1.9 billion).
Nintendo has sold more than 141 million Switch machines,
15.7 million of them during the fiscal year that just ended.
Such sales tend to gradually decline over the years, so
offering a steady stream of fun games is crucial.
“Endless Ocean Luminous,” which went on sale this month, has
the player go on a virtual scuba diving adventure, complete with whales,
colorful fish and other sea creatures. “Luigi’s Mansion 2,” featuring the
plumber Mario’s brother, goes on sale next month.
Nintendo is also planning a new film for worldwide release
in April 2026. It’s counting on the openings of Donkey Kong Country in
Universal Studios Japan, as well as a museum on Nintendo in Kyoto, both
scheduled for later this year, to woo more fans to its franchise.