On March 4th of this year, following Russia’s widely condemned invasion of Ukraine, the Nintendo eShop in the invading country stopped working — less a product of Nintendo actively pulling the plug and more a matter of course, since their third-party payment provider for the region suspended transactions. About a week later, Nintendo formally pulled out of Russia, citing the eShop suspension and “logistics issues.” But it’s natural to wonder what the company’s plans for the region are, or how removing itself from the country will affect its bottom line, which is exactly the subject of a recent question during an investor Q&A meeting.
According to Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa, halting Nintendo operations in Russia has had a negligible impact on the company’s profits, since Russian sales made up a proportionally very small amount of the company’s overall performance. The company is “giving serious thought” as to how to handle the situation “in light of changing world affairs,” but Nintendo Switch sales are still going strong in Europe broadly, with neither the Ukraine-Russia war nor global inflation souring things too much for Nintendo’s performance. So the whole situation is pretty up in the air, but Nintendo’s revenue isn’t suffering much in the meanwhile.
There were many other topics raised in the Q&A, ranging from hiring women for management positions to Nintendo’s operations in China and much more, so check out the full transcript if you have the time.
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Written by Amelia Fruzzetti
A writer and Nintendo fan based in Seattle, Washington. When not working for NinWire, she can be found eating pasta, writing stories, and wondering about when Mother 3 is finally going to get an official localization.
