Also the answer to the question of the early Partner Showcase announcement.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/54938/nintendo-management-briefing-reveals-switch-online-sub-count-digital-sales-and-more
Nintendo held a corporate management policy briefing overnight to update investors on high-level plans for the business, but did include some updates on the company.
The full briefing notes are available on Nintendo's investor relations site (PDF link). Among the items included in the 56 page document:
- Nintendo's seven mobile applications have been downloaded to 650 million individual accounts between launch and the end of August 2020, with users in 164 countries downloading the games.
- The Super Mario movie produced with Illumination (Minions) is still on track for 2022, and other "visual content" initiatives (not necessarily limited to film) will follow it in 2023 and beyond.
- Over 200 million Nintendo accounts have been created, with a major spike around the launch of Mario Kart Tour.
- There are over 26 million paid Nintendo Switch Online accounts as of September 2020, with major increases attributed to Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Pokemon Sword/Shield, and especially Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
- Fiscal Q1 (April to June) game sales were majority digital for the first time ever (50.1%), though this was attributed largely to retail largely being shut down outside Japan due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was not expected to be sustainable as stores reopen.
- Converting the game business to all digital sales is not Nintendo's long term goal, as it would prevent games like Ring Fit Adventure from shipping.
- A next game system was mentioned with a "20XX" release date, giving no indication on what the Switch's true successor would be.
- The final slide of the presentation announced the Nintendo Direct Mini Partner Showcase that will air tomorrow: since the briefing was in the afternoon in Japan, this is why Nintendo of America announced the event at 3:38 am ET.
