Investors were left worried after Nintendo announced that their first smartphone application Miitomo was delayed to March 2016, but president Tatsumi Kimishima immediately sought to alleviate such worries.
Speaking with investors, he shared that they wanted “at least about two months” to communicate exactly what users will be able to enjoy from using the application. That it is a free-to-start application also means that they “expect the impact to be minimal” in relation to their financial performance this fiscal year, and would rather concentrate on encouraging strong sales from their dedicated systems in December.
“Until now, we had been communicating that we would begin digitally distributing the smart device application within this calendar year,” Kimishima explained to investors. “After reconsideration on when the appropriate timing of the release would be, we have now rescheduled the release to March 2016. Upon releasing an application, we believe it is necessary to communicate about the application at least about two months before its release in one way or another.
“If the application were to be released in December, it would already be the time to start communicating about the application. Considering our entire business, we have decided to focus our efforts in the dedicated video game business for our largest sales season coming up in December and then inform the public about our first application early in the New Year and release it in March 2016.”
He continued, “As for the impact on our financial performance for the fiscal year ending March 2016, as we previously confirmed when the initial forecast was released (in May this year), we were not expecting a large impact if the application were to be released in December, since it is a free-to-start type application. Therefore, we expect the impact to be minimal due to rescheduling the release timing of our first application to March 2016.
