Tuesday, April 10, 2018

News:: GameStop CEO: Switch will have a 'very strong' year with help from unannounced games

It's in the best interest of GameStop's executives to puff up all the product they can, but a recent comment from their CEO shed some light on what's to come this year on Switch.

We know a few huge things are in the pipeline, like a new Smash, another Metroid Prime, and even another Zelda, but GameStop CEO Mike K. Mauler stated on an earnings call that this will be a banner year for the Switch due to some unreleased titles that are coming up.

Mauler states: "We know what happened with the Wii U. I'd say this is definitely a whole different platform that we saw in the past. We have visibility to the software... So, last year was a tremendous year for their software as well as hardware, between Zelda and Mario Odyssey and all the games that they had, it really drove a lot of hardware sales as well as software. I think, this year, when we look at the slate of titles -- many of which haven't been announced yet -- this year looks also very, very strong. So, I think, at least for 2018, we'll continue to see the strong software slate drive additional install based on the hardware and increase attach rate. We don't have, really, visibility for '19 yet, but for '18, it should play out that way."

Remember when any number of western entities (most notably EA) had such "great admiration" for Nintendo and went hog wild at the start of a platform's lifecycle and then promptly pulled out? I kind of get that snake oil pitch here. But the Switch is already proven, having surpassed the Wii U's lifetime sales in under a year, and now we know that there's likely more on the way for 2018.

GameStop Corp. (GME) Q4 2017 Earnings Conference Call Transcript [Motley Fool via Nintendo Life]

GameStop CEO: Switch will have a 'very strong' year with help from unannounced games screenshot



via destructoid https://www.destructoid.com/gamestop-ceo-switch-will-have-a-very-strong-year-with-help-from-unannounced-games-498043.phtml