Nintendo looks primed to make a major dent in the holiday gaming market, what with its Black Friday deals and its impressive lineup of games, including the Let’s Go! Pokemon games and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
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But in a recent interview with Kotaku, Reggie Fils-Aime explained that, if he had his way, we would’ve seen the much anticipated Ultimate just a little bit sooner.
“Would I have loved to have seen, as an example, Smash Bros. launch earlier in the year? Certainly. An early December launch is challenging. It’s challenging from a business perspective. It’s challenging from a retailer perspective.”
But then he added, “But having said that, as I look at the pace of growth we’ve had, our ability to bring Fortnite to the system, our ability to have Diablo III on the system, Wolfenstein, you look at the third-party support which has been quite strong, when you look at the independent community support which has been quite strong, I believe when you and I reconnect in January and we look at our performance through the first 22 months of its life cycle, I believe we’re going to be exceptionally proud of the result here in the U.S. of what Nintendo Switch has been able to do.”
And then he talked about Smash in general when asked to pitch the game to newcomers. “Smash Bros. is a brand-new Smash game. The broad roster of playable characters, new playable characters, that is a brand-new game. [The franchise director] Mr. Sakurai will continue to tweak the different characters until launch and even past launch. Brand new experience. We showed what the single-player experience looks like. That one is not anything from past systems. It is something brand new for that Smash players.”
Finally, He said that the holiday season was a key one when it came to console domination, as he’s hoping the Switch will reach 20 million units sold. “That is our goal. This October, November, December time frame is critical to us achieving that goal. We are well-positioned to do our fair share to meet that goal,” he said.
With Black Friday set to take place next week, we’ll see where the cards fall. You can read more of the interview here.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate releases on December 7 for Nintendo Switch.
