Kimishima Talks About Retirement, Profitability Of Nintendo Smartphone Apps

Earlier this week, Nikkei held an interview with Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima, revealing his intentions to extend the Switch’s lifespan beyond 6 years.

Further details have been revealed from the interview, as Kimishima talks about his eventual retirement, how he’ll use the 800 billion yen (USD7.2 billion) they accumulated to make the Switch a success, and the profitability of Nintendo’s smartphone apps. Check them out below.

Retirement:

“The most important thing for managers is time.” When Mr. Hiroshi Yamauchi left, he left the following words: “We do not know what will happen, but only do it under our responsibility”. And I think that is exactly what he said. I am always thinking about the time of my retirement.

How Nintendo will use its money to make the Switch a success:

The technological advance in the world is fast. While we look at front-end technology, we are always thinking about the future of Switch. Recently, although we have decreased profits for eight years in a row, we continue to invest in R & D (research and development). As we had a lot of funds, we were able to develop Switch and complete an alignment of attractive games in the first year. Producing explosive successes is the value of Nintendo’s existence. There are many interesting technologies in other companies outside of Nintendo. If it is possible to merge them with the technology of our company, we will also consider investing outside.

Profitability of smartphone apps:

It is expected that consolidated sales in this period exceed one trillion yen. If this level continues, we will need games that form three to four axes. We have already raised a scale that exceeds 10 billion yen, but if we can raise the sales scale with a zero more (to 100 billion yen), the company can maintain itself. We want to be in this situation as soon as possible.