Even by the video game industry’s hyperactive standards, it has been a topsy-turvy six months for Nintendo. The Japanese gaming giant is preparing to release its latest home console, the Nintendo Switch, shortly after its first successful foray into smartphone games.

Super Mario Run, which was released on the iPhone in December, has been a relative success, downloaded over 80m times and making Nintendo more than 6bn yen (£42m), but the backdrop has been a fluctuating share price and a company in transition.

The Kyoto-based firm is one of Japan’s biggest and oldest corporate names, and has always ploughed its own furrow, almost obstinate in its refusal to follow industry trends. Where its competitors look towards technological strength, Nintendo has revelled in the physicality and playfulness of video games, creating beloved characters such as Mario and Donkey Kong and producing idiosyncratic hardware that can divide as much as it delights.

Unfortunately for investors, profits have been equally idiosyncratic.

The Wii console, released in 2006, innovated with its wand-style motion controller and was a roaring success, selling over 100m units and introducing gaming to a new audience. Its successor, the Wii U, came equipped with a tablet-style controller and flopped; mixed messaging and a sparse games library contributing to dire sales.