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Nintendo R&D up 8.8% last year, expected to rise to $676 million in the next fiscal year

Deeke

Deeke

Member
Oct 25, 2017
966
United States
I saw something interest in Nintendo's latest financials: its R&D spending has been rising and should jump even further this year.

Here's a quick rundown:

  • R&D spend in FY2019 (ended March 31, 2019): 69.28 billion yen, or $627.8 million, up 8.8% YoY
  • Estimated R&D spend in FY2020 (ending March 31, 2020): 75 billion yen, or $676.28 million, up 7.7%

With these numbers, R&D spending will have risen 16.5% over the last two years. This increase in spending could indicate a new cheaper Switch variant is on the way, but also remember this includes new games and the weird experimental stuff Nintendo is working on but probably won't ever release.

I'm not sure if Nintendo is ramping up games dev (I don't know the total number of new first-party games it's working on off the top of my head) or if this is an indicator of new Switch activity.

What do you guys think?
 
Dekuman

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,026
Probably investing in the new Tegra chip. I just hope it's not a fool's errand tech like the broadcomm partnership. Though thinking about it, it would be perfect for a Wireless VR setup.
 
Josh5890

Josh5890

I'm Your Favorite Poster's Favorite Poster
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
23,170
I hope one day they release a book about the history of Nintendo R&D
 
ZhugeEX

ZhugeEX

Senior Analyst at Niko Partners
Verified
Oct 24, 2017
3,099
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NateDrake

NateDrake

Member
Oct 24, 2017
7,497
Nikkei's report said next-gen testing/experimentation is underway, so nothing too surprising. If Nintendo is targeting 2022 or so, then they'll have prototyping various ideas, form factors and testing all sorts of directions at this point. A final direction won't be made for some time.
 
Inugami

Inugami

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,995
SpaceCrystal said:
By then, both Nintendo & Nvidia should be able to come up with something great for it, like having games in Native 4K docked & Native 1080p undocked.
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Not if you're still expecting high end graphical features like raytracing and what not. 3 year is not going to be enough time to get that into a portable form factor.

Also, I wouldn't be certain that nvidia is going to be Nintendo's long term partner, at least through multiple generations. Not saying they wouldn't be either though, just that Nintendo isn't exactly bound to Nvidia, with the main reason for their partnership seeming to have been the good deal Nintendo got on the X1. While they certainly have a number of contracts, I could just as easily see Nintendo going elsewhere if nvidia decided future terms would be more lucrative for them (as they oft have done when it comes to the console market).
 
Spork4000

Spork4000

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
8,488
I can't wait for Nintendo to improve my quality of life.

KojiKnight said:
Not if you're still expecting high end graphical features like raytracing and what not. 3 year is not going to be enough time to get that into a portable form factor.

Also, I wouldn't be certain that nvidia is going to be Nintendo's long term partner, at least through multiple generations. Not saying they wouldn't be either though, just that Nintendo isn't exactly bound to Nvidia, with the main reason for their partnership seeming to have been the good deal Nintendo got on the X1. While they certainly have a number of contracts, I could just as easily see Nintendo going elsewhere if nvidia decided future terms would be more lucrative for them (as they oft have done when it comes to the console market).
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Who else would they go with though? Qualcomm SOCs aren't really the best for a high end gaming device and their really the only name in the game outside of apple.
 
ASaiyan

ASaiyan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,228
Well, they gotta pay to reboot the massive Prime 4 project. Sure a lot of money went down the drain there. And now there might be a perceived need to rush it.

Plus, there's a new 3D Zelda that Monolith's hiring for. And I bet it's gonna be another huge open world game.
 
justiceiro

justiceiro

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
6,664
Those N64 classic is proving to be harder than it seemed initially.

Also get ready for ultra ball accessory.
 
Hieroph

Hieroph

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,995
Sounds like new hardware alright.

Yoshimitsu126 said:
Looks like the next generation isn't releasing next year.
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I don't think anybody expects Switch 2 next year. First they need to get the (rumored) Portable and Pro Modest Upgrade models out, and then give them some breathing room. For SW2 the smart bet is 2021 or 2022.
 
Onix555

Onix555

Member
Apr 23, 2019
3,380
UK
I see the SNES 2 is coming along well. Lol


In all seriousness, expect 99% of the R&D budget to go into gimmicks; with the processors being fairly underwhelming.
 
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