Nintendo's stock tumbled this Monday, February 19 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, after several media reported in recent days that the Japanese group would not launch its next console before early 2025. The action of the Japanese pioneer of video games dropped 5.83% to 8,356 yen at the close, significantly underperforming the flagship Nikkei index which finished stable.
The stock lost up to 8.8% at the start of the session.
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According to several media, including VGC and Bloomberg, Nintendo has informed its game publishers that its next console, the highly anticipated successor to its Switch released in 2017, will not be marketed before the first quarter of 2025. Until now, speculation was rife on a release of this
“Switch 2”
at the end of 2024, to coincide with the end-of-year holiday period, the most important in general for sales of consoles and video games.
This prospect had sent Nintendo stock to new highs last week.
Also read: Nintendo raises its annual forecasts for 2024
Towards a “difficult” year for Nintendo?
“If the rumors are true, then 2024 will probably be a pretty difficult year for Nintendo
,” Serkan Toto, director of the analysis firm Kantan Games, commented on Monday.
Nintendo
“won't be able to release blockbusters (this year, Editor's note) because it will have to reserve them for its next console.
So it should limit itself to reissuing old titles, releasing small games or soliciting external studios
, or why not launching a new mobile game, according to this analyst.
Nintendo “generally achieves
up to 50% of its annual sales”
during the holiday quarter, Serkan Toto further underlined.
But on the other hand, the launch of the Switch in 2017 started in March, and that did not prevent it from becoming a
“huge success
,” he put it into perspective.
For the moment Nintendo remains completely silent on the successor to the Switch as well as on the schedule of its release.