Animal Crossing: New Horizons Delay Leads to Big Nintendo Stock Drop

Nintendo apparently saw a massive drop in its stock value following the news that Animal Crossing: New Horizons was delayed until March 2020.

The news comes from a Financial Times report; the original is locked behind a paywall, but the folks at Nintendo Life shared all the major content.

At the close of the day on Wednesday, Nintendo’s stock had fallen by 3.53%. That might not seem like a significant number, but the report states the drop took over $1 billion off of Nintendo’s stock value.

Investors aren’t quite so willing to wait patiently for Animal Crossing on Switch.

Chief among the causes for concern investors listed was Animal Crossing‘s delay. However, it wasn’t the only problem. Nintendo made no mention of cloud-streaming technology or services during E3, unlike its competitors, didn’t announce the rumored new Switch models, and didn’t unveil any sort of big collaborations.

David Gibson, an Astris Advisory Japan analyst, mentioned in the report that it was surprising Breath of the Wild 2‘s announcement didn’t provide any encouragement to investors. It seems news that the game was delayed to provide higher quality of life for employees didn’t encourage investors either.

However, these reasons highlight an important difference between what investors and consumers expect. Nintendo already said there would be no Switch upgrade announcements during E3, it’s only just started implemented cloud-based saves, and collaborations with Microsoft have been only rumors — nothing concrete.

Switch owners have generally been pleased with Nintendo’s E3 2019 showing, which provided substantially more information and games than last year’s Direct. According to entertainment marketing research firm Fizziology, not only did Animal Crossing: New Horizons receive the most mentions on Twitter, but only 2% of those mentions were negative reactions about the delay.

Of all the Nintendo games announced at E3, #AnimalCrossing is the one fans are most excited about! The Animal Crossing fandom mentioned the new game even more than the Zelda sequel and Banjo-Kazooie in #SmashUltimate! #NintendoDirect #NintendoDirectE3 pic.twitter.com/9cMWXwQNpk

— Fizziology (@Fizziology) June 11, 2019

Of course, this isn’t the first time investors have reacted strongly to E3. Last year’s Smash Ultimate-centric presentation produced yet another drop in stock prices before Pokemon Let’s GO launched later that year.

How this significant drop will affect Nintendo, if at all, remains uncertain. Yet with more Pokemon on the way this year, plus more rumblings about new Switch models, it seems likely stock prices will do what they do best: fluctuate.