Thunderful extends distribution agreement with Nintendo
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Thunderful Group has secured an extension of its long-running partnership with Nintendo, in which it handles the distribution for all of the platform holder's products in the Nordic and Baltic regions.
The agreement between Nintendo and Thunderful-owned distributor Bergsala was due to end on March 31, 2024, but has now been prolonged for another two years, with the same terms as the current arrangement.
Bergsala has been distributing Nintendo products since 1981, and this partnership is a significant contributor to the Thunderful Group's financial results. In its latest report, the group noted that its losses deepened in part due to declines from its distribution businesses, with weaker sales of Switch hardware cited as a key factor.
The company posted a loss of $59.2 million for 2023, as opposed to a profit of $11.8 million in 2022. As a result, a restructure was announced earlier this year that's expected to lay off around 20% of Thunderful's workforce.
Group CEO Martin Walfisz said Thunderful is "looking forward to the launch of Nintendo's new console," although this is now rumoured to be arriving in 2025 at the earliest.
Commenting on today's extension, Walfisz said: "Thunderful's unique relationship with Nintendo stretches back to the early 1980s when our subsidiary Bergsala started distributing Nintendo's fantastic products to consumers across the Nordics and the Baltics.
"We're exceedingly proud of this long-lasting partnership and look forward to many years of continued close collaboration with Nintendo."
Thunderful's games division saw record sales in Q4 2023, although sales of SteamWorld Build "fell slightly short of expectation." Walfisz attributed this to the change in genre, although at Hamburg Games Conference earlier this month, SteamWorld universe director and Thunderful co-founder Brjánn Sigurgeirsson explained why genre-hopping is one of the series' strengths.
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