Nintendo points to the upcoming launch of a new console
The last annual meeting of Nintendo shareholders was held in Japan from Thursday to Friday. A meeting of shareholders and directors that is held every summer and on many occasions allows us to see some of the company's most intimate moves, buried between the numerous pages and documents made public.
So, on this occasion, investors have not shied away from questioning why, this month, June 2022, Nintendo's spending on supplies and raw materials has suddenly risen to 66.5 billion yen (approximately more than 470 million USD), outstripping previous years' figures and reaching five times the expenses of the previous two years.
Going back just a year, the accounts released in June 2019, just a few months before the release of the Nintendo Switch Lite and the modification of the standard model with the Mariko chip, revealed another remarkable peak in this category, triple the expense of the previous year.
Shuntaro Furukawa, Nintendo's president, excused the expense in a vague way, assuring that "in the situation of shortage of supply and demand for semiconductor components, it is necessary to prepare for production by ensuring inventories of raw materials and components earlier than on previous occasions."
" The first reason is that we have more inventory than previously. The second reason is that the introduction of the new revenue recognition standard resulted in a change in accounting treatment."
Nonetheless, this fact has not taken long to raise all of the participants in the video game market's alarms, indicating the likely arrival of a new Nintendo system in the not-too-distant future.
And it is no secret that, in addition to the current Nintendo Switch OLED presentation, the Japanese business is working on a new system that will meet the standards of the next generation of consoles.
Keeping the hybrid format for portable and desktop gaming and repeating with a handheld "handheld" design, this new console will obviously not have the potential to compete directly with the PS5 and Xbox Series, but it could certainly recover some of the ground that other devices such as the Steam Deck are now gaining.
Post by Bryan C.
