Nintendo will hold a special ‘briefing session’ in September
But the meeting is reportedly unrelated to products or services
Nintendo has told Japanese press and investors it will hold a special management briefing session on Wednesday, September 16.
As reported by David Gibson of Astris Advisory Japan, the unusual meeting will be held in Tokyo, rather than near the company’s headquarters in Kyoto, just a few weeks after the release of its most recent financial results.
The briefing session will contain no new information on products or services, Nintendo has reportedly told those invited, and is therefore likely to be related to some form of internal restructuring or development at the company.
The meeting is also due to take place three days after Super Mario Bros.’ 35th anniversary. However, this is not necessarily related to the purpose of the briefing.
Nintendo currently has just one first-party title publicly announced for the rest of the year: Pikmin 3 Deluxe, which was revealed earlier this month.
Nintendo’s Shinya Takahashi said in June’s shareholder Q&A that the company did not expect software delays unless there was a second wave of the coronavirus.
“Currently, we do not see any impact on software set to go on sale this year, but there is a possibility that we cannot sell it as scheduled in the event of a second or third [coronavirus] wave,” he said.
Complications caused by the pandemic are understood to have contributed to the company deciding to push back many of its scheduled announcements in 2020.
Nintendo did not hold a June Nintendo Direct this year and there hasn’t been a full Direct broadcast since September 2019, with the platform holder instead deciding to air smaller streams mostly focused on individual titles such as Animal Crossing and Smash Bros.
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Sources had previously told VGC and publication VentureBeat that Nintendo could hold back its next full Direct until as late as August or September.
While its core business remains making and selling games, Nintendo has increasingly moved to leverage its popular IP in various ways in recent years.
The company’s new Nintendo Tokyo store opened in November 2019, Super Nintendo World theme parks are set to open at Universal Studios locations around the world and a new Super Mario animated movie is expected to be released “around 2022”.
