Talking about Labo, yeah it failed to do whats expected from him, Nintendo expected Labo will have much higher effect on Switch sales and especially that Labo itself sill sell much better during Holiday season, and obvious that's not case.

Talking about PLG, with digital sales most likely already hit 1m, and thats OK for still very limited Switch install base thats still below 6m.

I'm happy with labo failures tbh. I don't get it why Nintendo needs to experiment something wierd like that, it screams Wii Era apporach. Instead of wasting their resources on Labo development they should've focusing more on core titles output.

Nintendo always experiment with ideas that can be look weird to some people, also Labo is not in any case big project, its card box with very simple games. IMO Labo is good idea just Nintendo should have lower expectations from it, also $70-80 price point didnt helped Labo, but at end of day Nintendo will make profit with Labo in any case.

The reason I didnt see it as damage control was because that 80% figure was oddly specific. Typically PR fluff tries to be as vague as possible, something like

"Sales of Labo are within expectations and momentum will continue throughout the holidays".

A statement like that sounds positive but doesnt really tell you anything so it's hard to hold them to it which is what you want out of damage control.

1st: I agree with you. If Labo was succesful we will be seeing a different picture. If they release a 2d mario it will be different scenario.  They bank on the wrong horse early on.. I also think Nintendo over estimate the demand without a healthy core title.

2nd: That’s why I disagree with the install base arguments. We are talking about Japan where gaming is a culture. Atleast you can see what I am trying to say unlike someone I know. and used market is huge in Japan. That’s why it’s crucial for a game to have great legs and have a healthy sales to shipments ratio in it’s first 2 weeks. One example is FFXV. I am not sure if received a new shipments after the 1st one.

I will be honest that I am disappointed but I still think it’s good but not spectacular and good thing is it’s doing great outside Japan. Same as FFXV. Cold Steel doing okay in Japan but doing great outside Japan. (China). Revenue and profit wise Let’s go is up there already just by Japanese shipments alone.

As for the kast one. We will need to wait and see. I can see a revision with Pokemon as a bundle. Could hauve a small price cut. If animal  crossing and 2d mario will be for next year. 2019 will be a massive year for NSW.

I applaud Nintendo for trying, nothing wrong with attempting to expand their market. Labo was a cool idea, just not commercially viable.

I second this. Even though this time their idea wasn't for me, they need to keep doing what they do. New ideas are the only way that the industry can grow. It's a risk worth taking.

The problem with Labo was the way Nintendo tried to milk the idea. If Nintendo would have made one Labo game that is able to do everything kits 1-3 can do and more and then sell the cardboards separately, Nintendo would have had a lot more success.

Agreed. Nintendo Labo is part of what makes Nintendo, Nintendo. They are a toy company at heart. Why take that identity away from them? This was also done by one of Splatoon's directors, Tsubasa Sakaguchi, who seemed enthusiastic about the project. People complain about Nintendo not getting their young developers to do more, so here's what one of them did this year. Failure or not, Nintendo will keep experimenting. It's who they are. Hell, they first marketed the NES/Famicom with ROB the Robot.

Yeah, usually the first quarter has more releases for Sony. But this time we see NSMBUD and some smaller titles in the first quarter (I think Fire emblem and Daemon x Machina). The main factor here is obviously NSMBUD. I'm unsure how much pull it will have, but it might be the biggest impact on sales in first quarter.

Agreed. This exclusivity bullshit has to end.

I agree. Not everything works out. But if it does it brings new demographicsto our beloved hobby. And that is great.