Q4. The number of users playing Nintendo Switch per year has been increasing even in the seventh year since its launch. If a next-generation console is released in the future, do you envision a dramatic increase in the number of annual playing users, or do you envision maintaining the number of users at least above 100 million?
A4. Furukawa: The growth in the number of users per year has slowed compared to 3-4 years ago, and we believe that we are now at a stage where our priority is to maintain high utilization rates and to attract new users.
We believe that we are now at a stage where we will place priority on maintaining high utilization rates and also aim to attract new users. We will continue to release software titles, as the availability of game consoles tends to be affected by the timing of major title releases. We also believe that we need to continue to provide opportunities for customers to play Nintendo Switch, rather than relying solely on new software releases.
We do not believe that there is no need to launch a next-generation console because we have secured a certain number of users who play the console every year. Although it is not the right time to talk about specifics regarding next-generation consoles, we are always thinking about what interesting proposals we can make in order to provide new and unique entertainment, and we are developing a variety of products for the future.
When we launch new hardware in the future, the number of users who play games per year will largely depend on the number of hardware units in use. In light of this, I think it will be a very important issue for us to maintain the number of customers who play Nintendo's game consoles at a high level and how we can shift to the next hardware. At this stage, however, we believe that our top priority is to maintain and expand the operation of Nintendo Switch, which has been on sale for seven years, and to maintain the momentum of the business.