Nintendo talks Switch software sales, not considering Switch successor/price cut at this time, mobile efforts, and more

Nintendo's president Shuntaro Furukawa recently had an interview with The Sankei News in which he talked about a number of topics. Check out a snippet of the interview below, as translated by NintendoEverything.

The Sankei News: It seems like you had a lot of success with your year-end sales.

Furukawa: We had great sales for our home console, Nintendo Switch. Super Mario Party sold 1.5 million copies worldwide in just one month after its October launch. The newest entry in the Pokemon series sold 3 million copies in the first week of sales. And Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sold 5 million copies in its first week.

The Sankei News: Could you tell us how your goal is going for the Switch to sell 20 million units within the [fiscal] year?

Furukawa: It is an extremely ambitious, but worthwhile achievement. So, we will maintain this goal. Nintendo Switch is our primary sales objective, and we are not considering a successor or a price cut at this time.

The Sankei News: How about your games for smartphones?

Furukawa: Smartphone gaming for us is not a business where we sell our consumers a product once and that’s the majority of it. Our operational model is to continue to build a relationship with our consumers. It is very different from what we do with our dedicated gaming hardware, so we are in the midst of accumulating experiences in this field. We certainly want to release games across a wide variety of genres. We want this to continue to be one means of supporting our pillars of revenue.

The Sankei News: Is it becoming progressively difficult to keep talented workers during booming economic times?

Furukawa: We’re increasing our intensity in the competition of acquiring highly-skilled individuals, but we are up against other sources of competitive power, so we will be tackling these situations thoroughly. Nintendo is a company in the entertainment industry and our mission is to give people a reason to smile. Since our business is linked to the ebb and flow of our times, we are requiting those who can adapt in flexible manner. In the past, we have increased our internship programs and such to interest people in how we do things; we want to continue to spread Nintendo’s ways of thinking.