Investing.com-- Shares of videogame giant Nintendo Co Ltd (TYO:7974) fell sharply on Monday after Bloomberg reported that the firm intended to delay a follow-up to its wildly successful Switch console to 2025 from 2024.
Bloomberg reported that Nintendo was advising some videogame publishers to not expect the new console until at least March 2025, marking a delay from initial projections for a launch in 2024.
Shares of Nintendo sank 7.3% to 8,234.0 yen by 19:33 ET (00:33 GMT), while the broader Nikkei 225 index traded sideways.
The delay will see Nintendo miss the key year-end holiday shopping season in 2024, and comes amid slowing sales of the Switch, as the console nears the end of its cycle.
The Switch, which was launched in 2017, is the third-highest selling videogame console of all time, behind the Nintendo DS and Sony’s Playstation 2, with nearly 140 million units sold in the console’s lifetime.
But sales have slowed in recent years amid growing discontent with the console’s apparent lack of processing power, especially when compared to the more recent Xbox Series X and Playstation 5.
This had seen Nintendo start work on a follow-up to the home/hybrid console. Recent reports suggested that the firm had even shown some new hardware to major game developers.
Despite slowing sales in recent quarters, the Switch remained a key earnings driver for Nintendo, especially thanks to its exclusive, first-party games. Games such as “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” and “Super Mario Bros Wonder” helped extend the console's lifespan in 2023.