Nintendo has set up shop in the Singapore region, with an official Nintendo Singapore website as well as a YouTube channel for the first-party publisher.
The website looks like it’ll be a regional hub for all things Nintendo- with updates on the latest Nintendo news such as the Nintendo Switch OLED and Splatoon 3.
There’s also online e-platforms for Nintendo, letting you buy physical games and Nintendo products direct from the source if you live in Singapore via Shopee and Lazada.
Setting Up Shop
While there’s not much to the Nintendo Singapore website now, this is a good show of what the house of Mario has planned in future. Nintendo has famously been hands-off in their approach in South East Asia- the region doesn’t really have its own Nintendo Eshop, with many Switch owners opting for US or Hong Kong accounts to buy their games digitally or access DLC.
The set up of the Shopee and Lazada pages are already a good sign that the company plans to self-distribute in the region, independent of their current distributor, MaxSoft. Going insofar as to have their own webpage and YouTube Channel means they could be planning their own regional marketing, similar to the PlayStation Asia account.
What could this mean for gamers? For one, you could see the pricing of games change. Obviously this is better for Singaporean gamers since they would have access to games with their own regional pricing, instead of having to convert it from Hong Kong Dollars or USD. But the point still stands- it’s infinitely more convenient to have your own pricing, rather than having to convert from another country’s.
Secondly, it’s the promise of a more involved Nintendo in the SEA region. It’s not like Nintendo’s completely avoided the region- Singapore is home to a Pokemon Center, after all- but increased presence here means we could see more exciting events to promote upcoming Nintendo titles.