Nintendo beat analysts’ expectations for revenue and operating profit in its latest quarter and boosted the sales forecast for its Switch console to 14 million units in its current fiscal year, up from the 10 million units expected by the company previously.
The results, announced Monday morning, are the latest sign of a turnaround at the Japanese game giant, which has its North American headquarters in Redmond, Wash. The company’s previous console, the Wii U, has sold less than 14 million consoles over its full lifespan.
Nintendo’s Switch console is becoming a major pillar of its business https://t.co/wUt9A0IrqJ pic.twitter.com/FMeS9pdDR7
— Bloomberg (@business) October 30, 2017
Nintendo’s higher forecast is notable in part because Microsoft is preparing to release its new $500 Xbox One X console for the holidays, and the company has dropped the price of the Xbox One S to $250. Sony’s PlayStation 4 Slim sells for $300 with a 1TB hard drive.
Released in March of this year, the $300 Nintendo Switch is a hybrid console that can be docked at home for playing games on a large screen, or taken on the go for mobile gaming.
The company has also experienced recent success with the release of retro mini consoles, most recently the Super NES Classic Edition.
Nintendo said it shipped 1.7 million units of SNES Classic as of Sept. 30.
— Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) October 30, 2017
As part of its earnings report this morning, Nintendo released this updated schedule of upcoming game releases for the Nintendo Switch and 3DS.
Nintendo’s full earnings release is available here.