| REUTERS photo |
Japan’s Nintendo
Co Ltd said it will release a short video later on Thursday of the
next-generation game console it plans to launch globally in March – an
announcement that sent its shares up more than 4 percent.
The
Kyoto-based games company has disclosed few details of the console
beyond its codename, NX. The three-minute video will be available to
watch on the company’s website at 11 p.m. (1400 GMT).
The
console’s success will be crucial to Nintendo as the firm still places
console gaming at the center of its business, even as casual gaming
shifts from living rooms to smartphones.
Sales
of Nintendo’s current Wii U console have reached 13 million units since
its 2012 launch. Its predecessor, the Wii, launched in 2006, has sold
101 million units to date.
The
disappointing sales added impetus to shareholders and observers urging
Nintendo to embrace smartphone gaming. Nintendo finally announced its
entry into mobile last year and earlier this year decided to bring some
of its popular characters to mobile. That led to the runaway success of
its game Pokemon GO.
The company plans to debut its game franchise Super Mario Bros on Apple Inc’s iPhone in December.
Analysts
have said Nintendo’s family-oriented game titles compete with
smartphone games more directly than titles from rival console makers
Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp, which focus on high-end graphics targeting
core gamers.
With
only a short trailer for its new console, information is likely to be
limited, senior analyst Takeshi Koyama at Mizuho Securities said in a
research note.
“Nevertheless, we
will be looking to get a sense of how the NX is different, and what kind
of things will be made possible as compared to previous and existing
game devices,” he said.
Shares of Nintendo rose as much as 4.6 percent
during Thursday trade in Tokyo, outpacing a 1 percent rise in the
broader Nikkei average share price index.