The near future for Nintendo

Nintendo just released a few interesting pieces of info regarding their sales numbers and future software.

Here's the breakdown, and my take on the near future for Nintendo...



Incase you missed it, here's a quick breakdown of the info from my favorite Nintendo news site,
Gonintendo:

- Generated more than $729 million (90 billion yen) in sales, up from the same period lat year
- Operating income of $9.3 million (1.1 billion yen)
- Analysts were expecting a loss of around 1 million, so a major improvement from last year
- First positive operating income since 2011
- Nintendo attributes the success to Splatoon, which has so far sol 1.62 million copies
- The company expects to generate $4.6 billion in sales and $404 million in operating income for the rest of fiscal 2016
(Source: http://gonintendo.com/stories/239399-nintendo-posts-best-fiscal-q1-results-since-2012)

And as for the upcoming release schedule:

Along with their Q1 report, Nintendo has also updated their release date list. Nothing too revealing, though Project Guard is scheduled for a 2015 release despite the title being a no show at E3. But what is most interesting is that along with Project Giant Robot, The Legend of Zelda is currently slated with a TBD release date. I guess it's time to get that rumor mill running, if it hasn't already! (Source: http://gonintendo.com/stories/239400-nintendo-updates-release-date-list-for-2015-16) 

So. the most interesting bit of information to me is, and continues to boggle my mind, is how well Splatoon is performing. I can only imagine if the Wii U had been as successful as the Wii what kind of numbers we'd be seeing. Hopefully we can look forward to Nintendo giving Splatoon the support it deserves in the coming years.

Amiibo is also a smash hit. Nintendo has this uncanny ability to make a thing that everyone wants, not make enough of them, which makes everyone want it more, which helps Nintendo sell more of what they didn't make enough of... Well, you know what I mean. Amiibo are selling amazingly well. Let's hope this trend continues. I think Nintendo would be smart to not oversaturate us with Amiibo. So far they've been smart to limit the functionality of these little figures. It makes them a fun, but not necessary, addition to any collection.

Many have pointed out the lack of a hard date for Zelda Wii U. This could have just been an oversight on the company's part. They may just have no idea when this thing will be done. Zelda is the kind of game that they will not release until it's 100% ready. On the other hand there is lots of speculation that Nintendo's next Zelda game will be coming to the NX instead. or that it'll be a crossover game similar to Twilight Princess on the Wii/Gamecube. 

At any rate, Nintendo needs to absolutely nail the NX launch if it wants to have any hope of grabbing any sort of mass appeal. There will always be superfans who buy whatever Nintendo is selling (that includes me) but it would be really nice to see Nintendo come out swinging at the next launch and really impress the world with what it's capable of. Zelda as a launch game can only help them, but I really really hope they don't ditch Zelda on the Wii U.

There's plenty of games over the next 6 months to get excited about. I'll be doing a run down of the best and most anticipated titles for this fall/winter soon, so stay tuned for that!