The creators of "Mario," the saviors of video gaming, Nintendo are back! The Japanese company just reported having its most significant third-quarter profits in eight years. From October to November, Nintendo saw profits of 116.50 billion yen (1.07 Billion USD) - the highest it has seen in the same period since 2009.
Of course, these gains are thanks to the Switch - Nintendo's home/portable console hybrid. Released in March of last year, the Switch was an instant hit. Retailers struggled for months to keep the consoles in stock, with Nintendo striving even to produce enough to meet the high-demand.
Since then, the first ninth-gen console went on to raise Nintendo's stock price to a nine-year high, with predictions of it hitting near 15 million units sold by the one year anniversary. Reuters report that according to Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima, "The momentum for Switch over the last ten months has been stronger than that of the Wii."
Started from the bottom
While we have Nintendo to thank for most of the innovations we now take for granted - well-designed 3D worlds, the analog stick - they haven't always hit it out of the park. The Switch is the successor to the Wii U, which was a colossal failure by all accounts.
The Wii U launched in 2012 and only sold 13.56 million units before it was discontinued last year.
In less than ten months, the Nintendo Switch has surpassed what the Wii U could market in five years.
The holiday season saw 7.23 million of the overall Switch sales. This boost is primarily due to the release of powerhouse titles like "Super Mario Odyssey" and "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe." The Switch is on track to sell more than the GameCube (21.74 million) or the Nintendo 64 (32.93 million) in the next year alone.
Here come the games
Gamers are looking forward to new entries in the "Metroid Prime" series. "Pokémon," "Kirby," and brand new first party titles will also help move units. That's not to mention the mountains of support from both the indie scene and third-party developers like Bethesda.
Also, on April 20, Nintendo is launching the Labo cardboard accessory kit.
Instead of competing with the high-resolution and virtual reality worlds that Microsoft and Sony are vying for, Nintendo is going in the opposite direction. By selling you perforated cardboard, Nintendo is forcing you to be creative to have fun.
Nintendo is also planning to push more into the mobile scene, with recent apps like "Fire Emblem: Heroes" and "Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp" receiving positive fanfare.
