Look, I don’t think there is anyone out there who is as bullish on the possibility of the Switch being successful as I am- I legitimately believe that this thing will take off, and sell very well, reversing the decline that Nintendo has experienced with the Wii U. And yet, at the same time, I expect the Switch to sell around 3DS levels- so, 65-70 million units sold worldwide, or thereabouts.
However, it looks like Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima has some very different ideas about how much the Switch might sell. Speaking to Nikkei (via Japanese analyst Dr. Serkan Toto), Kimishima has stated that he expects the Switch to sell on the same level as the Wii- this is an exceptionally bold statement, given that the Wii sold at a record breaking pace not since matched, and that its total worldwide shipments came to over 101 million in the end.
Personally, I don’t think that will happen. Nintendo has an appealing product on its hands here that is bound to sell- and yet, the Switch is not as intuitively friendly as the Wii was. Nor does it have a Wii Sports like product pushing it. Ultimately, it’s a more core machine than the Wii ever was, and it is more expensive, too. While I do foresee the Switch being successful, it will probably not be Wii levels of successful. And regardless of what Mr. Kimishima may be saying in this interview, given Nintendo’s own relatively conservative shipments for the Switch – just 2 million for launch month – it looks like he, too, may agree with that sentiment.
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