Square Enix - reported Yen6.5bn loss for HD Games driven by Marvel Avengers, would not say how many sold but that volumes were 60% of plan. Implies game cost over $100m to make but only sold 3m or so. Ouch
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David Gibson
@gibbogame
Games,Internet,Social Media,Tech and IT are my interest, Senior Analyst at MST Financial
Tokyo/ Adelaide Joined October 2009
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Nintendo Switch JP data - “Pokémon LEGENDS Arceus”, has sold 1,425,000 copies, making it the 2nd best-selling Switch title of all time in its first week, behind “Animal Crossing”, which sold 1,881,000 copies. “Pokémon Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl" sold 1,396,000 units.
Nintendo just announced that it will have a Management Briefing Session on 16th Sept in Tokyo, but also said no new products, services etc will be announced then. Direct before then? Would hope so.
Lots of reports of improved PS5 supply in the past few months, but no data until now. Import data into the US confirms that Sony Interactive (PlayStation) shipments in Sept were +400% YoY. Yes you read that right. Some of that will go into inventory for GoW launch for sure. #PS5
Marvel Avengers- it looks like the total cost of the game is closer to $170m-$190m given they only expenses 70% of cost in the qtr plus marketing costs. Why someone didn’t say stop post the multiplayer beta will remain a mystery . Square are adamant they can make a recovery ....
Monster Hunter Rise sold 1.3m in Japan ex-digital which is close to MHW 1.35m. Sell through 94% so few available. Total likely to be 2m or more (35-40% digital) in the period. Switch hardware 267k, up from 89k last week. PS5 hit 62k sales, 35k last week, best since launch week.
Square Enix (SE) – highlights from results conf call… strap on your boots, this is a doozy 1/10 #SquareEnix
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Our acquisition will bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before. That's good for competition and good for consumers. Thank you @Nintendo. Any day @Sony wants to sit down and talk, we'll be happy to hammer out a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well. twitter.com/XboxP3/status/…
Square Enix - in results call said funds raised from Crystal Dynamics/Eidos of $300m will not be put into NFT, rather funds will be used to reinforce core business. NFT will have different finance separate.
Metroid Dread sold 87k physical copies, exceeding Metroid Samus Returns (3DS) in Sept 2017 which sold 29k. Best start for Metroid series since 2000. Digital sales not included. (2/3)
REVillage dev costs are less than $110m, and cost similar to RE7! So far 25% sold for PC, over 50% on PS and remaining on Xbox. PS5 volumes similar to PS4 when Capcom had thought PS4 would be larger given its installed base. Doing 50%-60% digitally so far. #REVillage
No that’s not what he said, he has a hit and is open to what’s next
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Nintendo may move away from home console development, says company president
eurogamer.net/articles/2019-
ジグソーコアラ, 3Dジグソー パズル ゲーム！Bluetoothで繋げて2人で遊ぶ事も可能。apps.apple.com/jp/app/jigsawk
Q) How think about metaverse and NFT?
A) We do have interest in this area, we feel the potential in this area, but we wonder what joy we can provide in this area and this is difficult to define right now (hey Facebook etc take note!!) 8/
Nintendo - this is interesting, more than 1 movie/film in the works.... Netflix Zelda series and others?
Square Enix -said this FY3/23, it will release several new titles but year is centered around major franchise. Noted it is the FF 35th anniversary and expects news this month or next. Noted it had had seen FF16 trailer and had high expectations for the title. #FF16
Nintendo results call highlights -
Q) Are new users buying older titles? What is the trend?
A) in last FY of the 1st party volumes, around 60% was catalogue, in 3Q it was 50%. Want to release titles that suit each type of user this year and into next year 1/
Even Nintendo is running lotteries for OLED Switch buyers in Japan…. Some retailers have indicated demand is 16x or more the supply
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[おしらせ]「Nintendo Switch（有機ELモデル）」について、WEB限定で抽選予約を受付けます。ご希望の方は10月18日（月）10:00から10月21日（木）23:59までに、予約フォームからお申込みください。商品は #NintendoTOKYO でお渡しします。
t.livepocket.jp/e/wq-wq
Sony IR - 3 positives in the presentation 1) Horizon (Netflix), God of War (Amazon) and Gran Turismo in TV development 2) 2 live service games coming in FY3/23 are not Destiny and 3) PC gaming revenues will surge 3.8x in FY3/23 (which I think relates to live service games) #sony
Japan games sales - Pikmin 3 Deluxe sold 171k in Japan, ahead of WiiU version of 102k in July 2013 and Pikmin 2 in April 2004 for Gamecube with 162k, Numbers should be higher including digital. Switch 87k sold up from 65k last week
So Switch Pro will have $5-$10 more expensive screen, add in $5 for DLSS chip and $20 for battery upgrade and $20 for memory upgrade=US$350 for 4K Switch with 128GB or more...or would it be US$300 and older model gets $250 price point? Either way a lot would want to buy #Nintendo
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Published: Nintendo to buy rigid OLED display panels from Samsung Display for a new Switch model planned this year, people familiar with the matter say. 7-inch, 720p. Mass production as early as from June. With @soheefication (1/2)
bloomberg.com/news/articles/
What is new here is 1) Nintendo delayed titles from 2018 into 2019 to improve quality, so the line-up for 2019 gets even better and 2) Updated Switch in 2019
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任天堂の記事を出しました。2000万台の目標に届きそうもないのでSwitchは勢いを失ったという見方がありますが果たしてそうなのでしょうか。来年どうなりそうか、そしてそれ以降は市場は何に注目しそうなのか、といったことと併せて書いております。
wsj.com/articles/smash
Nintendo Switch demand in JP- Yodobashi Camera (like BestBuy) reports that demand is 5-7x supply for the reservation lottery they are doing for the OLED Switch.
F- plan to add more to Nintendo Online including more SNES titles to make it more attractive. China working with Tencent, but timing is not set yet and not in guidance
Japan sales last week- Switch sold 180k across all models, the highest level since May, OLED sold 138k which was below LITE's 178k launch numbers but lottery sales and price difference account for big differences. (1/3)
Japan game data - Famitsu - week ending 27th Dec. Switch sold 278k (+19% YoY) up slightly from 263k last week. PS5 13k and PS4 12,600. Switch game volumes up 41% YoY excluding digital. Konami's Momotaro title sold 267k up from 209k last week and passed 1.23m sold.
So President was interviewed - 1) Supply of Switch may stagnate after start of 2022 2) Said year end sales for Switch in 2021 were strong, especially OLED.
Q) How think about the 98m versus next console?
A) Into 6th year of Switch and we are maintaining momentum, we are looking at how to expand and grow this 100m users, leading into next gen device (sounds like next device will be backward compatible!) 7/
Japan game sales - Xenoblade 3 took the top spot with 113,000 units sold, surpassing the 97,000 units of "Xenoblade 2" released in December 2017. This is ex digital of course.
In 2019, Nintendo has applied for 194 trademarks in China, including its own name plus game names like Super Mario Galaxy, Splatoon etc. China plans must be soon.
F: Nintendo Online - retention is critical, contents will be enhanced throughout the year
Well #supernintendoworld is fantastic , rides were great but it’s the interactivity that makes it fun. My kids competed to get the most coins and tokens and got only 28/170. It was worth the effort ! We had to go back the second day!
. Switch will have an amazing Nov/Dec, breaking records again. Not sure? Take a look at their shipments by weight according to ImportGenius .... lots of timing issues but Oct up 116% YoY (3m av 30% YoY). Supply has improved massively but it is snapped up by consumers
F: Nintendo World at Universal Park Japan will be ready in 2020, the Olympic year. Illumination Super Mario movie aiming for 2022
How about was planning a Direct this week but grabbed the Japan AM slot so they deferred it until next week! Time will tell :)
Japan data - Hyrule sold 173k, Switch hardware up to 179k from last weeks 116k on more stock and bundle with RingFit. PS5 2nd week sales 43k down from 188k for launch 4 days.
The has begun, will do my best to pass on main points, sorry for any mistakes. Talking about risk from virus
F: Switch aim is from 1 per household to 1 per person or several per household.
Japan Famitsu - “Nintendo Switch Sports” took the top spot with 190,000 units sold, just short of the 354,000 first-week sales of “Wii Sports Resort”, which was released in June 2009. Switch in 5yrs has sold 24.6m and passing 3DS which took 10yrs to hit the same number,DS 32.86m
1) have two types of hardware for different lifestyles - Switch/LITE
* new customers from LITE, existing buying LITE
* in 2019 Switch was similar to 2018 Switch, incremental is LITE
* Benefits of LITE not communicated enough
* No intention by end of the year to release new hw
Super Mario Odyssey now rated equal best with ZBOTW for Switch and 9th best game of all time on any platform metacritic.com/browse/games/s
Illumination movie
* 2022 is the planned release timing
* project we are very proactive in design and production
* producer is Miyamoto, Chris M from Illumination
* Promo is Universal, we have put in with Universal
Forspoken cost more than Yen10bn to make, with most of that likely to be written off. That is significant when company wide profits are close to Yen50bn!
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Square-Enix confirms Forspoken sales have underperformed
"That said, its sales have been lackluster...we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings."
rpgsite.net/news/13882-squ
Square Enix surprised at results by saying titles coming in period ending Mar 2022 will be focused on new IP titles (Outriders, Forspoken etc), that major IPs will come in the following years. So I think that means FF16,DQ12 etc will be April 2022 or later. Surprised #SquareEnix
Compare that to Nintendo Switch which just shipped 23m but forecasts 21m. Why down when PS5 is forecast to increase significantly? Nintendo = conservative, Nikkei report was 20m so that was too low. I expect Switch to hit 26m by year end.
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Sony says on May 10:
-sold 11.5 million PS5 units in FY21 vs initial target of 14.8 million initially
-target 18 million PS5 units in FY22 vs initial target of 22.6 million
bloomberg.com/news/articles/
Japan - PS5 has now sold 3m! That is in 121 weeks surpassing the PS3's 125 weeks and the PS4's 131 weeks! Last week PS5 (78k) outsold Switch again (66k). #PS5
Japan Games: Pokémon Legends Arceus sold 359k in its second week, taking total sold to 1.751m. Switch hardware was 92k +5% YoY while software was +103% YoY. In January in total, Switch -30% YoY while software +22%. #NintendoSwitch
Hey Nintendo Switch owners, would love to know your thoughts on which games you want to buy. Please do my survey
Can we send this to the executives of , Electronic Arts and Take-TWO ? They still think Switch is casual too....
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There is a common misconception that Switch users/owners are primarily children, but a new chart provided by Nintendo shows that not to be the case.
The biggest users of Switch are actually 20-30 year olds.
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Nintendo Management Briefing Session is at 4pm JST (3am EST) today, will do my best to cover here. Attendees from Nintendo are - President Shuntaro Furukawa, Miyamoto Shigeru, Shinya Takahashi, Shiota Ko, Satoshi Shibata & Mr. Murakami
Capcom reported strong 3Q results - 6m games sold, 80% digital and 83% catalogue.... including 400k RE7, 450k RE2, 350k RE3... and of course 850k REVillage. Amazing how resilient older titles are and the boost they get from recent REVillage success.
1) Crystal Dynamics/Eidos (CD/E) sale was driven by concerns that the titles cannibalized sales of the rest of the group and so it could improve capital efficiency
F- Nintendo Online now 9.8m accounts excluding trial, Tetris 99 has had 2.9m accounts played this game
Would make a lot of sense , but I have had tell me directly they would not put other streaming services on the Switch. Lost opportunity...... twitter.com/MatPiscatella/
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Almost time for Nintendo results, excuse the spelling mistakes that follow
Ever wondered why Capcom doing better than others in JP, its this line-up from presentation - new releases turn into long tails of sales
Nintendo will report shortly, expecting upgrade in guidance, in 3Q expect OP 203bn, Switch units 12.2m, Software 84m. Call on later, yes will do my best to post but could be delayed #Nintendo
For results - in 3Q MK8D sold 4m which was more than 3.2m in the same period last year, Super Mario Odyssey 2.2m versus 1.6m, ZELDA:BOTW 1.8m v. 1.4m and Splatoon 2 1.1m v. 0.8m = older titles continue to sell massively
Nintendo quick numbers - mobile phone downloads total 650m, Nintendo Account has 200m accounts and is core to future plans and services, Nintendo Online has 26m paid subscribers
Which really means Nintendo doesn't want outside ideas.... they have done pretty well ignoring the world so far!
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Nintendo isn't planning any big purchases when it comes to buying other companies according Nintendo boss Furukawa and honestly they don't need to.
Nintendo's big strength is 1st party. Focus and refine that while working to get unique games like Bayonetta etc. via Bloomberg
Nikkei story today on Nintendo, with CEO saying "We want to provide entertainment that is different from others," (on its next console) but behind the scenes, it appears that negotiations with suppliers about production systems have begun. Nikkei comment on suppliers, not the CEO
Spot on... for the wider audience the OLED/Memory/white the upgrade is attractive. Hardcore gamers will in the end relent once they see Metroid Dread on OLED.....
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3+ million views on YouTube already for Switch OLED, 156k Likes, 91% Like Ratio and #1 Trending all day
While this isn't getting received super well in the hardcore gaming community there seems to a be a lot more positive sentiment and interest among the general audience
Japan Famitsu sales - Switch sold 108k last week, up from 73k, all of that increase was in OLED which was 61k up from 33k last week. Older Switch titles surged in ranking (Ring Fit, Super Smash Bros, MK8D) as more hardware sold. Metroid Dread sold 10k, 22k last week. #Nintendo
So Switch production from 25m to 30m. Pro coming with 4K games next year. Looks like they might break the Wii record of 26m shipped
Good luck with that
Marvel - that’s the reason why Square sold its NA team for $300m. Because in a little under two years they lost $200m on two Marvel games. But it still looks like a low price given the optionality on probably 4 AAA titles coming through. #SquareEnix #Embracer
So Pokemon S/S sells 1.36m ex digital on 10m installed base in JP, biggest launch in JP for Switch as passes Smash's 1.23m, Lets Go did 0.66m, Ultra Sun/Moon 1.2m but on 24m installed base, Sun/Moon did 1.9m on 22.1m installed.
7) Phase 2 = So SE is looking to sell stakes in its studios to others to improve capital efficiency. Right when others like Sony etc are buyers. I would expect Sony, Tencent, Nexon etc would be interested.
Nice headline to raise Nintendo salaries by 10%. But in the context of low paying games jobs in Japan, Square Enix and Capcom increased salaries by 30% to retain and attract talent all while maintaining margins.
But also Nintendo itself is looking also to work with MSFT (Azure) to offer its own streaming service in limited regions (JP, US etc).
On Twitter in Japan,#3 trend is "Zelda Break" (people taking the day off to play Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ). Title likely to break records and sell 25m copies globally in the next 12 months. #Zelda #ZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom
Japan Famitsu data - Last week Switch sold 171k,+77% YoY, up from 168k last week +44%. Software sales +52% with Momotaro still #1 with 107k, AC #2 with 36k and Ring Fit #3 with 36k. Older titles still doing amazingly well - Zelda +41% YoY, MK*D +115%, Splatoon 2 +66% and more
Think this is key for Nintendo ... they assume production improves from late summer towards autumn
R&D investment - previously used to look at conventional tech that enabled a lower price and appeal to users. But now doing cutting edge technology, look at how intuitive it is for users, also battery life is important given game-play of 5-6hrs
Here's some highlights from the #Nintendo results call.
Q: Why guidance assumes units fall?
A: Last year had AC and WFH, so expecting down YoY in 1H as a result. Not assuming any WFH benefits
Capcom’s MHR has passed 5m now, just over 50% is Japan as sales continue at a strong pace. capcom.co.jp/ir/news/html/2 Global Hit!!
Nintendo imports into USA for Switch continue at strong pace with Mar +163% YoY, yes there was seasonal slowdown but still very strong. Hence restocking looks to be happening which is good for demand/supply but means Pro is not any time soon (Sept/Oct likely). #nintendoswitch
Lots of reports of #PS5 supply has improved and people able to buy! Which is great. How big a change? Import data into the USA shows Dec shipments until 20th Dec still very strong +315% YoY. 1/2
Spot on. If there is no new model how come they are destocking their inventory to record low levels?
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Nintendo is going lie through its teeth saying there is no new Switch right up until they Tweet out the damn thing.
'No plans' is 'go away'.
Keep in mind that MSFT paid about US$5-$10m for Guardians of the Galaxy to be on Games Pass... that is like $2 per game when retail is $29. Ok that is all profit but not too many publishers will be doing that given the low economics from Game Pass.
Game Line-up?
T: we are preparing other titles, not able to say too much here, continue to release titles that are fun
M: have a lot of ideas, important that contents are unique to Nintendo, we are not denying approval for internal development ideas.
Japan OLED Switch demand - Yodobashi.com report that demand in their lotteries was 16x for White and 29x for Neon Blue/Red. Will be sold out and limited by supply for sure. Who said OLED Switch will not sell? #NintendoSwitch
Due to change of firm and realistic media policies I can now tweet live from the results meeting tomorrow as I used to do. It will be company comments, not mine and apologies for typo's/errors in advance. Fun starts at 9:30am JP time (7:30pm EST).
Q) How does 4Q Arceus/Kirby impact 4Q guidance?
A) For 23m hardware goal we have plenty of procurement but do not have visibility for logistics and especially overseas. Software guidance not really changed for 4Q and depends on how titles go. 2/
So #Nintendo 1Q results disappointed partially from Switch hardware sales in Americas 1m lower than expected. Total Switch volumes were -22% YoY and games -10% YoY causing investors to say cycle decline has begun. Is this supply or demand? Think its mostly supply (1)
Monster Hunter Rise hit 4m shipped which is a stellar performance. Around 50% in Japan which means it hit 2m which is more than Animal Crossing! (ex digital). #MonsterHunterRise
Nintendo Management Meeting - sorry due to logistics I won' t be able to live tweet today, but will post info at completion. Sorry.
The Super Mario Bros Movie is on track for over $225m opening weekend globally, that's $125m in US and $100m globally according to Deadline (over 5 days). Rise of Gru did $123m in US over 4 days and went onto selling $940m globally.
Cannot believe i finally got a PS5 after lottery win from JP retailer. Been trying for a year and I am a games analyst ! As people have been saying …..the controller is amazing…. going to be a fun weekend!! #ps5
Super Mario Party
* designed to be simple, to be a lot of fun, think will be popular wherever people together
* Oct 1.5m sold globally, very good start and have momentum ahead of holiday season, this also boosts joy con sales.