Investor confidence is a big reason for the success of a company in the stock market. As beloved as Nintendo is, its prospects rely heavily on satisfying the expectations of investors.

This is why its future endeavors, specifically the Nintendo Switch, is so important. To investors the Nintendo Switch represents the future of Nintendo, good or bad.

To them, the success of Nintendo depends on the Nintendo Switch becoming successful. The importance of the Switch to the long-term viability of the company is not lost on anyone - fans, analysts and observers and also Nintendo itself.

According to gaming website Gaming Bolt, Nintendo ended the year as the video game company with the second highest gains in the Japanese stock market. The company had a net gain of 48%. Nintendo's performance is due to the resurgence of the Nintendo 3DS as well as increased investor confidence in the company's future initiatives such as their mobile games, their theme parks and movie deals, and especially the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo's increase in value is a result of increased confidence in their prospects. This indicates that investors believe that Nintendo is going in the right direction and that they believe in the success of the company's future plans, particularly the Nintendo Switch.

In contrast, Konami is one company whose public image took a beating in 2016 due to their shabby treatment of popular game director Hideo Kojima as well as their poor handling of their popular classic franchises. The company, however, ended the year with the most gains on the Japanese stock market among all game companies in 2016.

Digital magazine website CGMagazine reported that Konami's stock gained 66.2% in value during 2016. Most of their gains were due to their very successful pachinko and health and fitness businesses. The company switched their focus to mobile gaming and pachinko machines this year.

The Japanese game company with the third highest gains was Sega which had a net gain of 55% due to Sega's merchandising business and mobile and PC games which were very successful. Sega also had a successful launch of its console games which included Yakuza 0 and Persona 5.

Square Enix only had a 1.7% gain despite several successful launches like Final Fantasy 15. Capcom lost 6% of the value of their stock due to the lack of success from their launch of Street Fighter V.

Koei Tecmo also had modest gains compared to Konami and Nintendo. Nintendo's most important product, the Nintendo Switch, will be launching in March with more details revealed on January 12.