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Despite selling over 160,000 Nintendo Switch Lite units in its debut week in Japan, Nintendo’s share price was sent tumbling, falling 4.37 per cent – it’s lowest point in eight months – as sales failed to hit Citibank’s 300,000 projection.
Its thought the stock drop is partly attributed to Media Create, which originally reported the Lite’s first week of sales as 114,000, not 160,000.
“Can’t believe this preliminary report and poor analysis from Citibank caused Nintendo stock to drop 4% yesterday. Crazy,” said Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad. Famitsu, on the other hand, reports sales of 178k.
Famitsu is reporting that the Nintendo Switch Lite sold 178k units in its first three days in Japan. The original Switch sold 62k units, which is up week on week.
An impressive number indeed. https://t.co/MHiPrWU4sa pic.twitter.com/OhjY3iwyBo
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) September 25, 2019
Can't believe this preliminary report and poor analysis from Citibank caused Nintendo stock to drop 4% yesterday.
Crazy. https://t.co/5FXVQLAGYd
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) September 25, 2019
“Casual gamers that could be drawn to the new console are unlikely to rush to buy the console immediately after…launch,” Citibank analyst Minami Munakata said (thanks, GI.biz). “Still, it could be that the Switch Lite is attracting fewer casual gamers than we presupposed.”
Nintendo announced the Nintendo Switch Lite, a new iteration of its handheld console, in July. The new system – available in yellow, grey, and turquoise – went on sale September 20, 2019. In line with recent rumours that Nintendo had two new Switch models in production, the Nintendo Switch Lite is smaller than the original version and does will not include a stand nor a dock, so unlike the current model it will not support video output to TV, but it will support “all games in the robust Nintendo Switch library that support handheld mode, although some games will have restrictions”.
Nintendo of Japan recently revealed that while cloud technologies are “definitely advancing”, it does not believe “all games to become cloud games any time soon”. In a Q&A summary for the company’s 79th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, the company formally responded to a number of questions, including the advent of cloud streaming games and how the company intends to respond to this fresh competition.
“While we don’t expect all games to become cloud games any time soon, the technologies are definitely advancing,” said Shuntaro Furukawa, representative director and president. “We see a future where cloud and streaming technologies will develop more and more as a means of delivering games to consumers. We must keep up with such changes in the environment. Furukawa also stated back in January that Nintendo was “not fixated on [its] consoles” and may be interested in creating more mobile games in the future. Furukawa said he was “thinking about little ways [he] can reduce that kind of instability” created by market fluctuations and said he’d “like to increase” Nintendo’s smartphone game development to secure “a continuous stream of revenue”.
