2023-05-12 06:00:10
It is already an announced success. Nintendo was to launch, Friday, May 12, the new opus of one of its flagship franchises: Zelda. Since 1986, this is the eighteenth time that its hero, Link, has taken center stage, in a game called Tears of the Kingdom.
If fans of the franchise stampeded before the release of the game, and after six years of waiting, it is also the case of the leaders of Nintendo. On Tuesday May 9, the company presented its annual results for the 2022-2023 financial year. If it exceeded its objectives, with a net profit of 2.9 billion euros and a turnover of 10.8 billion euros, it reported a decline in volume of 22% of sales of its Switch consoles.
In this context, the success of the new Zelda is a major issue. This “will be by far the biggest contributor to Nintendo’s sales for the coming fiscal year”, estimates Serkan Toto, analyst of the firm Kantan Games. And not just when it comes to game sales. In its closed ecosystem – Nintendo’s licenses are all exclusives – the release of new popular titles helps boost console sales. In April, sales of Switch have already started to rise again in the United Kingdom (+ 30% compared to April 2022), even before the release of the game, thanks in particular to the launch of a special edition Zelda.
” A special case “
“Nintendo users expect franchises to measure the quality of the brand’s latest consoles”, believes Julien Pillot, teacher-researcher at the Institute of Advanced Economic and Commercial Studies. Conversely, Xbox and Sony do not need to rely on their own franchises since they rely on the month after month on the big releases from third-party studios.
Zelda is not Nintendo’s only strong brand: its catalog includes series such as Mario, Pokémon or Animal Crossing, which have enabled it to retain consumers for decades. Together, these four franchises occupy nine places in the top 10 best-selling games on Switch since the launch of the console in 2017. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe topped the list with 54 million units sold. Analysts believe that Zelda should be able to exceed 30 million.
“Nintendo is a special case in the video game industry, quite comparable to what Disney is in the cinema, with ultra-powerful, transgenerational franchises that do not age”illustrates Charles-Louis Planade, director of international operations of the brokerage firm TP ICAP Midcap.
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