The Japanese newspaper Nikkei reports that Nintendo’s long-dormant Quality of Life initiative is no longer in development. The finality of the project is due to hardware partner Panasonic parted ways with Nintendo in March. Most pertinently, the news has caused a 5% drop in Nintendo’s stock value, as of 11:20 AM on Monday in Japan time.

Nintendo’s Quality of Life initiative was announced all the way back in January 2014 as a contingency plan during the struggling Wii U years. The initial pitch was a non-wearable device that measured a person’s sleep patterns overnight. Flash forwarding four years, Nintendo seldom brought QOL up at investor meetings, last mentioning its state in July 2017, saying:

Moreover, we are working on the development of a new product that improves people’s QOL (Quality of Life) in enjoyable ways. Our aim is to enable consumers to make daily efforts to improve their QOL in a fun manner by making sleep and fatigue status visible and offering various services based on this information.

Nintendo itself has not confirmed or denied Nikkei’s report, so for the time being, investors are having the final word with this steep drop-off of their share value. Nintendo’s stock is ultimately okay, enjoying a bump last week of 4.3% thanks to the announcement of Pokémon Let’s Go! Pikachu and Eevee.

Quality of Life
A contingency plan that never was.
Alex Irish
When he's not writing about games, Alex Irish is an illustrator and animation expert. His favorite gaming franchise is Pokémon, full-stop, but his favorite game of all time is Resident Evil 4. He attended the first-ever IGN House Party and is a five-time attendee of the Ottowa International Animation Festival.