Nintendo Shares Fall on Weak Outlook While Next Switch Awaited

The stock fell as much as 4.9% in Tokyo after President Shuntaro Furukawa posted on X to say that while Nintendo plans to announce a successor to the seven-year-old Switch in the coming year, that won’t happen during an annual Nintendo Direct event in June. The post came shortly after Nintendo said it expects operating income to fall a bigger-than-expected 24% to ¥400 billion ($2.6 billion) on a 19% revenue decline in the year to March 2025.

The profit warning and uncertainty surrounding a new gaming console underscore the challenge for the company that’s still reliant on aging hardware.

Furukawa’s post would mean the launch of the next-generation hardware will occur in 2025 at the earliest, SMBC Securities analyst Eiji Maeda said. “That means Nintendo’s target to sell 13.5 million units of the Switch this fiscal year “looks challenging ahead of the release of a next-gen console,” he said.