For sure entering new markets is going to be huge for Nintendo in the coming years, I remember a few years ago it was notable when the Switch sold 50K during the December it launched in South Korea, in 2019 they sold 386K, if they are selling 150% that this year it translates to 750K for 2020. In Taiwan during 2019 they sold 200K which with the same increase would amount to 450K for 2020.Taiwan and South Korea accounted for 2.7M software sales in 2019, so those two nations could contribute to around 4M software sales this year.
I do wonder how much of a cut Tencent is getting in China, seems Ring Fit Adventure is a smash hit there and Animal Crossing isn't doing too shabby either. According to recent articles Switch is catching up on the PS4 and demand is growing. Due to China's strict censorship and Nintendo's nonoffensive nature, a lot of their titles get released there. The video game market there is set to grow considerably in the coming years there. So if South Korea & Taiwan are contributing over 1 million units to their total per year, wonder what China will look like by next year.
At some point, it might even become popular in places like South America, Eastern Europe, India - Nintendo just needs to have some marketing presence there, a more localized price for the games/console and supply chain partners. One of the reasons I expect the Switch to breeze past 150 million mark fairly quickly.
Will be interesting how Third Parties can capitalize on this in 2021, I'd imagine Harvest Moon, Monster Hunter Rise, Age of Calamity, Bravely Default 2, Rune Factory 5, SMT V all have a pretty great shot to do some extremely impressive numbers for their makers in the coming year. Also would be happy for Platinum if Bayo 3 is a Nier-like success. The localization efforts and having multiple languages at launch and global release dates would be a huge opportunity for any publisher, Age of Calamity would be the first game to demonstrate this for Koei, one of the reasons I expect it ship 5 million just this quarter.
Last edited by noshten - on 11 November 2020
