Nintendo Profits Exceeding Expectations, Switch Leading the Charge

To no one’s surprises, the Nintendo Switch has done incredibly well in its first year, between [...]

Nintendo Switch

To no one's surprises, the Nintendo Switch has done incredibly well in its first year, between the system's accessibility and its number of insanely good games, like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Mario Odyssey. But based on a new report from the Wall Street Journal, it might even be doing better than Nintendo ever dreamed possible.

Though you need to subscribe to the Journal to read the report, we did manage to dig up a few interesting details from it, including just how much money Nintendo is rolling in over the past year.

Nintendo is expected to finalize numbers on April 26, but the revenue forecast indicates that the company will report revenue around 1.04 trillion yen, or $9.57 billion. That's more than twice the amount made in 2017, which equaled around 498.1 billion yen.

On top of that, the Journal also reported, "The median operating-profit forecast of 18 analysts polled by Quick is ¥166.9 billion, more than five times the year-earlier ¥29.4 billion. Net profit, always volatile due to currency fluctuations -- Nintendo has large holdings of dollar- and euro-denominated assets—is expected to hit ¥132 billion, up from ¥102.6 billion."

It also made note of things to watch for with Nintendo's report, including how the Nintendo Switch has done far better than expected. "Nintendo is likely to confirm that sales of its handheld-hybrid Switch exceeded expectations. The company had forecast sales of 15 million units during the just-ended period; analysts expect the number to be around 16 million."

As far as where the Switch will go next, the Journal believes, "Nintendo plans to announce its initial Switch sales forecast for the current fiscal year, ending in March 2019. Chief executive Tatsumi Kimishima said previously the goal would exceed 20 million. Analysts expect the company still to be cautious, leaving room for upward revisions in quarters to come." It could end up anywhere between 25-30 million, depending on predictions.

No game predictions were made, but the Wall Street Journal did talk about the company's mobile plans. "Nintendo announced it is developing a "Mario Kart" game for smartphones. But it hasn't said the game is next in the pipeline—meaning Nintendo could have some unannounced smartphone games ahead of the racing game's release." With E3 just around the corner, this wouldn't be a total shock. But the real question is, what franchise would the next mobile release be based off of? Or will it be completely original like Miitomo was?

Whatever the case, Nintendo is riding high on success, and with so many games in the pipeline -- including Super Smash Bros., Metroid Prime 4 and Bayonetta 3 -- there's no reason for it to slow down now.

(Hat tip to Resetera for the details!)

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