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 stock is currently (11:20am on Monday in Tokyo) down a whopping 5%.
Possible reason: Japanese business daily Nikkei today reports Nintendo's "quality of life" project might be dead.
Nikkei says potential hardware partner Panasonic withdraw from that project in March.
— Dr. Serkan Toto / Kantan Games Inc. (@serkantoto) June 4, 2018
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.
