The accounting period just before launching a new console is always a tough one: who's likely to shell out for a machine when a newer, shinier model is on the horizon? Perhaps that's partly to blame for a sharp decrease in Nintendo's third-quarter profits which saw the company's operating profit drop to $1.3 billion / £814m, compared with $2.31 billion / £1.4 billion for the same period in the previous year.
The company didn't alter its operating profit forecast for this financial year, sticking with $2.5 billion / £1.56 billion, obviously hoping for great things from the Japanese launch of 3DS on February 26th.
As for its current consoles, Nintendo cut its sales predictions for Wii from 17.5 million to 16 million, and shaved a million from its DS sales forecast, from 23.5 million to 22.5 million.
Nintendo hopes to sell 4 million 3DS consoles in its first month on sales, which should help to bump up its financial standing.
Note all figures are converted from Japanese yen and are provided here as guides only.
[source news.yahoo.com]
Comments 31
46% is a horrific decrease.
Seeing how much Miyamoto and Iwata make, they can afford this easily.
Nintendo is d00med.
Wow... Only 1.3 billion?? Poor Nintendy. Wish I had a fraction of that
When you figure Wii sales, while still quite well over X-mas, were less than last year's, naturally, few people were picking up new DS hardware, and no major DS software releases (Golden Sun is not Mario/Pokemon), it makes sense that profits would fall around half, since the DS is at least half their sales normally. Add in a possible short term increase in expenses as they put the finishing touches on the 3DS (though this is probably fairly small...the big hit will likely be this quarter with pre-launch marketing), a strong yen/weak dollar, this is really not bad at all. Don't let Iwata fool you. He lives on Chicken's couch, because he's a hot mess, not because he's broke.
uh oh
crosses fingersi hope the 3ds makes up for that and probably more than 46% of profits from it !@Oregano:
Hardly suprising. All the talk of great christmas sales etc.
But the first and third party is not upto standard.
Xbox360 and PSN have great releases guaranteed to sell by the bucketload every month and a strong online community,
Wii has roughly 3 - 5 good first party games a year and the 3rd party support on the other hand is just ps2 games with motion controls.
@6 Uhm, how? Only people with a spare $250 and £230 lying under their couch will be able to buy one...
They'll most likely make a profit from Skyward Sword and KEY.
Whatever. I don't care about sales anymore. As long as Nintendo makes enough to get by, I'm not worried.
@9 well ya it depends i just hope they can get back to that and i forgot that kirby isnt out for uk yet (that must suck) but with the other games(zelda,mario sports,etc. since nintendo relases alot of good games) that are coming out for wii/ds/i/3ds they may have a chance by christmas!
those of you who keep saying nintendo is DOOMED!! yeah in your dreams. you might want to check vgchartz.com if anybody is doomed and in the red flag its sony
I'm sure the 3ds price has something to do with it, being over $250. People need to save up longer for that. plus it's immediately after the holidays.
no company is doomed, not from what im looking at
no company is doomed, i agree on that,
No games company will ever be "doomed", as long as there are kids and teenagers (and a small amount of gaming adults) the gaming industry will always survive.
I don't think Nintendo will be making big bucks from the 3DS very quick though, maybe a $250 here and there, but they will probably be going out of stock the next year. It's gonna take a while to save up pretty much £/$300 for a games console (including game).
And I can see the majority waiting until the 3DS Lite to be honest, or until the price drops below the 200 mark (like me )
@XMiggsX, Blackfira, xDemon720x: psst -- Oregano was joking, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post that double-Bender macro. lighten up :3
Economics is complicated as is the whole marketing issues of gaming. I don't think this is as bad as it sounds. Remember the sales of Wiis and Ds' are astronomical in the 1st place
Awww only $1.3 billion, how will they survive?
Because of this mystical thing called exchange rates, japanese companies are getting shafted.
I know in Australia, there has been little to no information on the 3Ds in the public spotlight. Which makes me question whether people are really holding off buying Ds's as they probably don't even know about the 3Ds.
What is probably going on is that they hit market saturation of their products. I mean no one buys more than 1 wii/ds unless one breaks or something. There is only so many units you can sell before everyone who ever wanted one, has one.
They'll gain most of those back with the 3DS which is releasing in Japan next month and the 3DS elsewhere a month after. After all, they're still making a boatload of money.
when the 3DS comes out they will be back on there feet for sure i think because who isnt going to want to play it
@25 Everyone wants one, but not everyone can afford one...
@TBD I was just adding my point to the comments :3
yawn... internal company numbers. Doesn't affect me in any way unless Nintendo was going away and uh... yeah... I'm pretty sure they'll be around this year baring a natural disaster befalls Kyoto... << >> <_<
runs to knock on wood
The 3DS is probably one of Nintendo's biggest risks yet. It can either be their biggest success or their biggest failiure.
Do they still think a replacement for the Wii isn't needed.
I, personally, have never ever seen more than $1,000 at a time, so I just think you people are crazy for thinking that $1.3 billion is so low. I'm just happy that Nintendo still makes games!
The most important thing is that in the last 6 years, Nintendo has made billions and billions of profits, more than ever before... so the company is VERY healthy, no matter if profits are now down...
In the meantime, even if the 360 or the PS3/PSP are no commercial failures, i'd like to see the exact numbers, and see if the initial losses are now something of the past... but one thing is for sure: the profits made on these consoles just can't compare to the ones made by Nintendo...
Oh please, look at Sony.
If they weren't an entertainment company (and not a videogame company), they'd be out of business since long. PS3, PSP Go,… they've made so many mistakes and still annoy Nintendo.
take it easy people the sky isn't falling. they are just adjusting their forecast. the ds and wii are still selling in the bucket loads. but u can't expect to sell at a high rate year after year when every and their momma have a nintendo console already. plus the 3ds is about to drop. nintendo is fine. take a deep breath people
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