Nintendo CEO Tatsumi Kimishima has said that current financial guidance leads him to expect that 2 million units of Nintendo Switch



Nintendo CEO says current FY financial guidance assumes 2 million units of Switch to be shipped this fiscal year ending in March — Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) October 26, 2016

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On Switch: Nintendo CEO says company won't make loss by selling it; but also listening to what consumers expect from us when setting price. — Takashi Mochizuki (@mochi_wsj) October 26, 2016

Reported by the Wall Street Journal's Takashi Mochizuki at Nintendo's financial results briefing, that number is over a million units less than the Wii U's initial 3.06 million unit shipment To clarify, the 3.06 million is based on Nintendo’s reported Wii U sell-through 44 days after the system launched (the sales period of November 18 to December 31) in 2012. Leading up to Wii U’s launch, the company said at the time it would ship 5.5 million units from the system’s holiday debut until the end of Nintendo’s fiscal year in March 2013.Nintendo may have started selling Wii U during the holiday sales period, but it does not intend to do the same for Nintendo Switch. The company has made it clear that it plans to sell its new dedicated gaming hardware worldwide beginning March 2017. At the time of this article, Nintendo has not specified a launch date, but the proposed Spring launch window gives the new hybrid console a sales window of up to 31 days.It represents what could be seen as a more cautious Nintendo, whose expectations for the Wii U were far higher than the reality to come It's worth bearing in mind that a shipped unit represents hardware being sent to retailers, so this doesn't necessarily mean that Nintendo expects to sell all 2 million units immediately.Earlier today, Nintendo revised its expected sales earnings for the financial year down by 30 billion yen.Kimishima also addressed other questions about the hybrid home/handheld console. Regarding the console's price, he reiterated that the company will not be producing units at a loss (a tactic used by other manufacturers, who expect to make their profits through software sales).That could raise fears of an expensive console, but Nintendo will apparently also listen to what its potential customers expect to pay for the Switch before setting a definitive figure.Kimishima also made clear, once again , that no announcement on the console's specs or price will be made in 2016.The Switch, previously known as the NX, was revealed last week to be a console that can be used at home or on the move , and will be released in March 2017.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's UK News Editor, and one thing he doesn't want to carry over from Wii U is all the secret bits of Nintendo music in the OS menus. Follow him on Twitter