Switch gaming console crucial to Nintendo success

Nintendo offered a sneak preview of a new gaming system that can be used both as a traditional console as well as a handheld device which will launch in March 2017. Its success will be crucial as Nintendo still considers console gaming to be the centre of its business, even as casual gaming has moved to smartphones and tablets and as it last console, the Wii U, flopped badly.

If sales disappoint, the company will come under even more pressure to embrace smartphone gaming - something it has only just begun to do. "The trailer does not show the device being played in interesting new ways, gameplay looks to be surprisingly similar to gaming with any number of other consoles," Takeshi Koyama, a senior analyst at Mizuho Securities, wrote in a report to clients.

He added that many aspects of the new device remained unclear, such as whether the screen on the main unit is a touch screen or whether it can be synced up with other smart devices.

Eiji Maeda, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities, said the games should go down well with traditional Nintendo fans but there were no games shown that seemed to break new ground.

Shares in Nintendo were down 5.7 per cent on Friday, giving the company a market value of about $35 billion. The stock is, however, still up some 70 per cent since early July.