The Nintendo Switch was released in March of last year, becoming one of the hot-selling items that year with some heavy-hitters like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a launch title, and Super Mario Odyssey releasing in October; just in time for the holiday season.
Those two titles, however, were not the only first-party games that Nintendo released for thei new handheld hybrid console, since they also released Splatoon 2(a game that has a growing community), and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; both of which have been financially successful for the Japanese company.
This year Nintendo's approach has been somewhat different, by releasing
Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu! and
Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee! just a bit over a week ago.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the other heavy-hitter that the company will be releasing before the end of the year; more importantly before Christmas.
In a recent interview, Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé mentioned that the holiday is very important for the company, and it manages to generate about 60% of the revenue. This not only coming from the Nintendo Switch, but also from the Nintendo 3DS family of system that Nintendo has managed to keep alive as a budget handheld console.
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The holiday selling season — October, November and December — critically important to our company. We typically do, in the Americas, about 60% of our revenue during that time frame. The reason that it’s so significant is first, our products make great gifts. Whether you’re talking about Nintendo Switch, whether you’re talking about Nintendo 2DS, we really do well with that gift-giving occasion", explained Fils-Aimé.
With
Pokémon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee! selling over 3 million copies within its first week, and
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate becoming the best pre-selling title on the series, as well as the best pre-selling title on the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo has really made a good choice by choosing this date to release two of their most iconic franchises before the holidays; which will likely help the company make that traditional 60% of revenue.