GameStop’s quarterly report saw an increase in overall hardware sales thanks to the Nintendo Switch, which is the first time the company has improved in that particular area in five quarters. This signals a strong start for the system as it continues to sell, and this had GameStop CFO Rob Lloyd singing his praise for the performance of the platform out of the gate.
Not content with that statement alone, GameStop’s company chief, Tony Bartel, pushed the significance of these numbers further. As it turns out, Bartel claims that GameStop is actually struggling to keep up with demand for Nintendo’s latest game console.
To clarify, these sales of the Switch from GameStop don’t indicate the entirety of the market, but an analyst with Niko Partners, Daniel Ahmad, reports that Nintendo Switch sales in the US have been about 10% faster than Wii sales after the same amount of time. Although this isn’t all that surprising considering that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild actually managed to sell more copies than the Switch itself did after the first month of launch.
That just goes to show how important worthwhile software is to the initial success of a system. Whether or not Nintendo can keep up that steam remains to be seen, but with several blockbuster titles en route (with one apparently a bizarre crossover called Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle) the company has put itself in a very good position.
Sources: Gamasutra, FenixBazaar (via GoNintendo)
