2025 is shaping up to be a big year for Nintendo, as the Mario company is launching a highly anticipated new system, the Switch 2. But the company isn’t going to rely only on traditional hardware and games to find success. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa has opened up on why Nintendo must push “beyond video games” to encourage people to engage with Nintendo.
As part of Nintendo’s latest earnings report, Furukawa said Nintendo is making use of theme parks, official stores, “visual content,” and mobile experiences to “generate interest in our core business.” In case there was any doubt, Furukawa stressed that the “dedicated video game platform business” is Nintendo’s core business, and efforts outside of that are being undertaken to funnel people back there.
“Going forward, even as we transition to Nintendo Switch 2, it remains important to increase touchpoints beyond video games,” Furukawa said.
The executive said content and experiences for smart phones will play a “very important” role in this effort, and Nintendo will continue to push in this area, Furukawa said.
Nintendo’s push into the mobile market has already reached some 900 million cumulative downloads, Furukawa said, noting that some of Nintendo’s success in the smartphone business has come in countries and regions that don’t have support for Nintendo’s traditional game consoles.
“I believe this has increased the opportunities for more people to access Nintendo IP and characters,” Furukawa said.