 Hey, everyone, how's it going now? Here's something I did not expect today, but this is important Chintaro Furukawa Actually talks about the idea of new switch hardware and the future of the switch platform and how Nintendo approaches things And this is important because while we have heard Nintendo's approach to new generations Console development game development over the years that was under you know Satoru Iwata may he rest in peace and obviously Kimishima who was a temporary Stand-in until Chintaro Furukawa was ready now Chintaro Furukawa has not actually spoken very often outside of investors meetings So to see this interview happen is huge. It happened with popular Japanese publication Nikkei But it's been translated and put out there by Kotaku. So let's actually give this a read because It's pretty interesting what he had to say So the article goes the Nintendo switch was launched on March 3rd 2017 Just as the console passes the four-year point Nintendo president Chintaro Furukawa Discusses the hardware and its lifespan in a new interview with Nikkei business For our company, it's a big topic What we should do next when a console passes its fifth year Which by the way, it hasn't passed its fifth year yet But it's in the midst of its fifth year as of today or as of yesterday Whatever anyway is going on and the harbors lifecycle is in the process of getting longer for a kawa explained The exact added that great care is given to switch owners who are continuing to use the console Nikkei business did not ask the exact about the recent switch design rumors. I mean, let's be honest He would just give the same Response that he has nothing to say anytime soon With the interview does shed light into how Nintendo develops new hardware and the company's approach to innovation The publication did point out that depending on how things are handled the console's lifespan can get even longer That's correct Furukawa replied regarding the switches lifespan I often say that's entered in the middle phase or so He explained that because the switch can be played as a traditional home console and as a portable There are a lot of possible games. We are able to lengthen the life Cycle Furukawa was asked about the development time frames for hardware to which he replied We are always doing research and development according to Furukawa The hardware and software dev teams are in the same building and are in close communication Therefore, they are always able to come up with new ideas and proposals Because you must do all sorts of various preparations to make one new console The truth is that you cannot stop Ultimately the deciding factor as to whether or not something becomes an actual product is whether or not it creates a new Experience but even though the first few years of switch have been wildly successful Furukawa isn't complacent Currently the switcher sales are exceedingly favorable and achievements are also good But I have zero peace of mind He said no matter the hits in the entertainment business people someday do lose interest up until now We have repeatedly had the experience of our business taking a nosedive Because of this I myself as well as those within the company Do not at all think that the current state of affairs will keep going and going for Furukawa He believes that every single year is a do or die situation You must give new customers fresh surprises and our existence can slip into obscurity at any time I've always had this kind of sense of crisis now look at this point You could try to read between the tea leaves which I'm about to do but It's clear that Shintura Furukawa never is satisfied This is a very different take than Satoru Iwata and even Kimishima before him where maybe they rest on their laurels a little bit Get a little bit complacent and we see that at times He's kind of like no look Any time at any point he's been with Nintendo a long time Something can change drastically and the company nosedives. That's just the way the industry has gone for Nintendo You have massive successes like we DS massive failures like we you 3ds Is it technically a failure, but it's the least selling handheld system to date? Obviously, they saw you know huge success with nests and Game Boy even Game Boy Advance and then kind of saw things Peter off a little bit You know with n64 and then GameCube so clearly like he's seen the ebbs and flows of Nintendo And what he wants to do is make it so the ebbs and flows You know that he does feel are a little bit inevitable are Less likely to occur less likely to nosedive and that they won't bring out a new product Of course a new generation of systems unless it's ready to do something that surprises and invigorates the consumer and I think what's interesting is when he mentions that every single year for him's do or die He doesn't look as any particular year as we could take this year off We can just chill which is interesting because a lot of people think that's exactly what Nintendo did last year But if you think about it consider this they went into the year worth the work from home mandate went to the year Obviously with manufacturing a significantly cut back on switch and went to the year knowing that they were not going to be able to deliver They kind of line up that they would like to there was going to be game delays But what did Nintendo do they didn't just accept that there was going to be game delays They ended up delivering what I feel is actually ended up being a really good year of games And yes animal crossing new horizons clearly was the big thing that carried it But Super Mario 3d are all stars sold over 8 million you have you know Age of Calamity selling over 3 and a half million probably over 4 million at this point You know you have paper Mario selling a lot you had even generally chronicles definitive edition selling a lot You pick the three deluxe becoming the best selling pick-me-game of all time clearly while there was a heavy reliance Maybe an older content last year. It still worked out Nintendo didn't just bail on the year and not give people stuff to play Even if what they were playing was basically rehashes of games that have already been out beyond a couple experiences So Nintendo was definitely still trying to be successful and not just accepting Hey, we're gonna have like the wee lulls, you know We're gonna have those years with a wee where we only have like two games come out No, like even if we don't have massive exclusives We're going to bring back some more older content and make it fresh and make it good for you guys again And that was Nintendo's approach to last year and obviously the very beginning of this year up until obviously for the default Who came out monster hunter rise new Pokemon snap? All that jazz obviously scourge already cheese a little bit of a continuation of that However, probably leading into Zella 35th anniversary stuff It's interesting because furukawa with this attitude of do or die with this attitude of trying to keep things going Trying to keep things going and going and going But this kind of lets credence to bringing something like a switch pro to the marketplace because Nintendo has Traditionally left their systems kind of Peter out. We you petered out. We petered out, you know Gamecube petered out n64 petered out 3ds petered out like Nintendo kind of rides and dies with the system until it's just not selling anymore and then at that point they've already lost all their sales momentum and Now they're kind of stuck trying to rebuild He doesn't want to get Nintendo into that position by viewing every single year with Nintendo Was a do or die by doing in his own words because of this I myself as well as those within the company Do not at all think that the current state of affairs keep going and going and the every is a do or die And you must constantly give customers new fresh surprises and our existence could slip into obscurity at any time Like he has this kind of sense of crisis about him Those are his words like hit to him. Nintendo is always in crisis. That's good That is why you bring a switch pro to the marketplace Despite the fact that the switch is killing it because to ignore that you could provide a better Experience to gamers to make new switch owners happy to make original switch owners happy You're to ignore that would just to be getting complacent to just accept Hey, the switch is killing it right now. Why do anything new because if you don't you get complacent you don't wait You don't do what Nintendo's been doing for so long Which is wait until your system isn't relevant and then try to make it relevant again That's not what you do in Nintendo's ideal world with switch. They come out with a switch pro this year It maintains momentum Maybe even build it higher than it's ever been and then by the time that gets to its peak Right give it to two years or so that gets to its peak That's when you start to reinvigorate that market with the idea of a new platform a Switch to you keep the momentum going for as long as you can and he's realistic. Yeah, the switch idea isn't going to work forever But why not try to make it work for as long as possible? Why not try to keep the market excited for for as long as possible with the content and with the hardware? It's a synergy. He mentions. Hey, we have the hardware team and the software teams in the same building There is a synergy if the software teams tell the hardware team. Hey, look, we need an upgrade We want to make our games better. We want Breath of the Wild 2 to be 60 FPS Native 1080p. What can you do to do that without alienating the old consumer base a Mid-gen upgrade like the new 3ds is like exactly what they need to do people were bitching back then back then when Xenobite Chronicles Was exclusive, you know when Minecraft came out and was exclusive the new 3ds people were bitching then and you know what happened The new 3ds became the best-selling 3ds platform You know that Nintendo would love the idea of the switch pro leading the charge is the best-selling switch platform Do you think they love to sell 90 million of the current switches and then a hundred million a switch pros? Of course they would and I think you can keep it going for three four years because of the switch pro that Absolutely, Nintendo wants to keep momentum They don't want to wait till momentum is gone and then try to win it back It is so hard to do that and I think he learned this from watching Sony Sony has been the masters of never letting momentum die Okay, they screwed it up once PlayStation 3 launch messed it up way too expensive the wrong technology made the wrong bets Blue Ray was the right bet the weird architecture of the system was the wrong bet And they paid the price for it and it took them years and Years to build the reputation back up Nintendo doesn't want to do that anymore. They've been there They've done that they want to look at what Sony does PlayStation 4 sold 20 plus million units And it's final year before PlayStation 5 came out 20 plus million Nintendo wants that Don't like everyone's like why replace the system, you know with a new system when the old system is still selling so well So the momentum doesn't go away Yeah, PlayStation 4 sales are gonna drop off a cliff now. It doesn't matter because PlayStation 5 is killing it in the marketplace That's what Nintendo wants they want switch and then the next gen and then they want everything to be smooth They don't want to have lulls. They know the lulls happen But they want to do what they can to avoid it having this do or die attitude is going to keep Nintendo Constantly pushing the envelope not only with technology, but with their games This is good news This is absolutely good news even if you're personally not excited for a pro you're perfectly happy with your switch Guess what pretty much I just put up a video that the switch pro will have exclusives because every single like nude new revision Not revision more powerful revision I should put out there of a Handled system for Nintendo has had exclusive games in combination with a report out there that third parties are gonna be doing exclusive games Guess what? That's third party Nintendo themselves are not gonna take a Metroid Prime 4 or Bandetta 3 or Breath of the Wild 2 and say guess what you have to buy a switch pro to play it No, it might be best on switch pro, but you'll still be able to play it They're not gonna leave that audience behind But what was something said, you know trying to do these things while not alienating the audience You can do this Satisfy basically Nintendo can win across the board with the switch bro if they approach it just right That's what I'm getting out of this You can say I'm just reading what I want from the tea leaves and that is totally fine You tell me what you think Obviously, I feel like just do or die thing from Nintendo is like Yes Yes, like this is what I've been wanting from them. I've been wanting them to not get complacent This is a non complacent Nintendo That's exciting. So you guys let me know you think what was down in the comments below I understand a robot jets from Nintendo product got my shout to Ninjala Obviously, I thought it was better at E3, but you know what Ninjala the final product is still pretty good game You know if you haven't given it a try it is completely free to play and exclusive to switch So you absolutely should check it out. They're not a sponsor or anything. It's just I think it's a legitimately good game So go check it out. Otherwise, I will catch you guys tonight I want to see you guys get back here around 8 p.m. Central time If you're watching this later, then sorry you missed it, but you can go back and rewatch it I will be doing a live stream tonight Will be streaming Breath of the Wild also a Q&A so it's gonna be kind of a combo conversation and Gameplay stream and for every 100 live viewers So we'll be giveaways and the giveaways will get bigger and bigger and bigger the more we get so like the first hundred viewers Will be like, you know a eShop gift card 200 will be something 300 400. Maybe we get to a thousand Maybe we give away a switch. I have no idea. We're just gonna kind of let it be escalating giveaway So there you go. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. We'll see what happens tonight I'm looking forward to having a lot of fun with all of you. Peace out You