By Sam Nussey
TOKYO, June 10 (Reuters) – Nintendo’s shares fell 7.5% on Wednesday after the company’s Nintendo Direct presentation of forthcoming games lacked titles from top franchises such as “Super Mario”.
The Kyoto-based company’s stock price has been hammered by concerns over a lack of high-profile games to build momentum for the Switch 2 gaming device.
The shares are down around a third year-to-date.
The lack of a “mainline 3D Mario” for this year’s holiday shopping season is “commercially meaningful”, Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a client note.
The Switch 2 launched last June with titles including “Mario Kart World” and later “Donkey Kong Bananza”.
“Year 2 now enters the holiday window without a franchise title of comparable pull,” Goyal wrote.
Last month Nintendo hiked Switch 2 prices as it grapples with a memory chip price boom, which is also seen as a risk to sales momentum due to its price-sensitive consumer base.
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
