Nintendo surprised us with a “new form of play” with the Nintendo Labo last month, and company President Tatsumi Kimishima had more to share about it in the company’s latest financial results briefing.
Here’s more from President Kimishima:
Looking ahead at the next stage for Nintendo and Nintendo Switch, we believe we need to offer very Nintendo-like “new forms of play.” One of those efforts is Nintendo Labo, which we announced just the other day.
Consumers around the world who watched this video had generally favorable responses, including some who voiced delighted surprise that Nintendo had once again done the unexpected.
The release is set for April, so this was just a teaser to unveil the product. We will introduce the full particulars for Nintendo Labo over the course of the weeks ahead through hands-on events and a variety of promotional activities by Nintendo.
The response by families to the Nintendo Labo Studio hands-on events has been tremendous. In just the four days following the release of the Nintendo Labo video, applications outstripped spaces 50 fold in the US. The ratio of applications to spaces was extremely high in other markets as well. We are very thankful for this response from families around the world. We are also looking forward to directly experiencing the responses of consumers to the hands-on events.
Nintendo Labo is a product intended to broaden the possibilities of Nintendo Switch. We hope to develop Nintendo Labo into a product that is not bound by the conventional boundaries of video games, and that endears itself to an even broader range of consumers.
The Nintendo Labo kits will become available starting April 20, 2018.
