The Nintendo Switch console recently surpassed Sony’s PlayStation 4 to become the second best-selling console of all time (after Sony’s PlayStation 2), with 122.55 million units sold. However, investors aren’t happy, as signaled by the huge stock crash experienced today by Nintendo shares, down 7.52% in the biggest drop of the past sixteen months.
According to a few analysts who spoke to Bloomberg, the sudden Nintendo stock drop was due to the lack of a new Switch console announcement, which has been long rumored but never confirmed.
Kazunori Ito, an analyst at Morningstar, stated:
Earnings showed the Switch is rushing to the end of its life cycle at a faster pace than what we had anticipated. Hardware strategy is a key for Nintendo in the next fiscal term, but it looks like it has no good measures for now.
Mark Chadwick, an analyst for Smartkarma, added:
Demand is exhausted, and the normalization of supply chain issues benefits rival Sony’s newer PlayStation 5.
Another analyst, Amir Anvarzadeh from Asymemtric Advisors in Singapore, had a slightly different take:
The issue that most analysts do not fully appreciate is the difficulty in upgrading the GPU of the Nintendo Switch without sacrificing battery life. This is a new problem for Nintendo as they have always had two consoles to take care of, one for home and the other is their handheld franchise.
Later today, there will be a Nintendo Direct stream. The likelihood of a new console announcement seems extremely low, but there should be some new game trailers and information. Additionally, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is expected to become available for pre-order. Indeed, the product page went up a few hours ago (before being taken down), showing that the game could be the first Nintendo Switch title priced at $69.99, following the industry trend.
