Nintendo says The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake is "off to a great start" and the 40th Anniversary Edition Switch 2 console has also been "very positive," heading off speculation from an investor that price hikes may be hurting momentum.
Taking questions as part of its latest financial briefing, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa is pressed on how well the Switch 2 is selling its wares after the console's price jumped to $500 earlier this year. Investors reckon things are slowing down, and they don't like that. As such, one asks the Nintendo suits whether they think current financial goals will still be met.
The short answer is absolutely; just look at how well Zelda's Ocarina of Time remake and 40th-anniversary console are doing.
"Adoption has progressed smoothly over the roughly one and a half years since Nintendo Switch 2 launched last June, and the installed base now exceeds 25 million units," Furukawa says. "At the end of last year's holiday season, we explained that there were regional differences in how well our expectations were met. But the March release of Pokemon Pokopia acted as a driver of global hardware sales, and we entered the new fiscal year with good momentum."
Furukawa continues by saying that, while the Switch 2 did indeed increase in price, the impact hasn't been too great because most people were given plenty of notice and have had plenty of hardware and software bundles to compensate for it.
That takes us to today, where Nintendo is seemingly riding high thanks to all things Zelda.
Furukawa says the special version of the Switch 2 designed to celebrate Zelda's 40th anniversary has been "very positive" for the company and has "contributed to strong sales in various regions." Meanwhile, while it's too early to delve too far into the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake numbers, Furukawa says it's "off to a great start," and that Nintendo is in "good shape for the coming holiday season," too.
"Holiday season sales significantly impact the number of units shipped annually for our dedicated video game platform business," he says. "Given the hardware price revisions, we think the sales trends over the next several weeks will be key to achieving our sales guidance."
While no official numbers are given, there are signs that, yeah, those Zelda products are shifting units.
As per Circana, the Zelda 40th Anniversary Switch 2 drove record sales for Nintendo in the US. In fact, it was only last month that a Nintendo exec said those at the house of Mario "underestimated" how well it would sell. Stock has been an issue, though a welcome one.
We have less to go on with the Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake. That said, analyst firms say the N64 throwback is the largest physical launch in the UK so far this year. With the festive period coming up, I can see why Nintendo isn't sweating this one too hard right now.
