Highlights from Nintendo’s Corporate Management Policy briefing

by Daniel VuckovicNovember 9, 2022

After most releases of Nintendo financial information at this time of year, they have either the same day or the following day a Nintendo’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing in which they run through the information given in the financial results in a shareholder-friendly way.

There’s actually a lot of information that’s quite interesting but probably not headline material. So we’ve scanned through the massive document to find the highlights.

Who’s playing their Switch?

We know Nintendo has sold over 114 million Nintendo Switch consoles, but how many people are actively playing them? It turns out it’s still quite a lot. Over the last 12 months, at least 106m people have been playing their consoles. This doesn’t include people who don’t share that information with Nintendo, so it could be even higher.

But who are these people, and how old are they? Nintendo says that “Many users, ranging from kids to seniors, are playing Nintendo Switch” and the below chart shows the spread. The massive spike in the early 20s is interesting, as is the spike in the early 30s.

How is Nintendo Switch Online doing?

There are now 36 million members for Nintendo Switch Online as of September 30, 2022. That’s an increase of 10 million from last year. The number of people playing online is likely higher, however, as the 36 million includes family plans which can have up to eight people.

Splatoon 3 welcomed new players

Nintendo’s pretty happy with how Splatoon 3 is doing. Selling 7.9 million units will do that. Despite all those sales, many people playing the game for the first time are newbies. Or people who once played Splatoon in the past but are returning to it. While these stats are for the Splatfest World Premiere, they should give a solid indication of who’s buying the game.

Nintendo believes in Nintendo Account

Nintendo really wants people to have a Nintendo Account, not just people who play their games but make use of their IP in theme parks, playing mobile games and more.

Nintendo is investing in Nintendo Account with the help of DeNA, there even making a new subsidiary to further how the accounts are used and integrated into other products.

Cash

Nintendo has a lot of cash on hand, and they’re using it. These are things already announced, but Nintendo hasn’t ruled out further acquisitions.

We are not denying the possibility of further M&A activities, our top priority is to organically expand our own organization to sustain Nintendo’s creative culture.

Oh and remember that new packaging for the Nintendo Switch? It’s coming – it’ll be using the OLED box style for the standard Switch going forward. You can see it below.

If all of this seems a bit horn-tooting that’s because the intended audience for this stuff is shareholders and investors. These people don’t always follow companies they invest in daily like a gamer might.