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Image: Leave Luck to Games

As you've likely already seen, Nintendo has increased its forecast for Switch hardware sales and delivered some impressive results in its Q2 reports. Let's break the results down.

Starting off with net sales, at 374,041 million Yen ($3293 millionUSD, approximately) it's a number that's easily the highest for equivalent sales in the past five years. The high sales bring with them increased 'cost of sales', but nevertheless the company has achieved profits whereas the equivalent six months last year delivered losses. Operating profit (a key factor in determining the health of a business like Nintendo) came in at 39,961 million Yen (approx. $352 millionUSD) and the final overall profit was a healthy 51,503 million Yen (approx. $453 millionUSD)

The Switch drove a lot of these positives, especially as the system was still fresh on the market and could work through what is typically a quiet quarter in the game industry. Spring / Summer releases such as Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are cited as notable successes, while the launch of the New 2DS XL helped bring 3DS 'family' sales up a modest 5% even as the portable's game sales fell compared to last year. Nintendo Mobile also played its part with revenues from Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes.

The sales so far are below, and the key figures relate to the Switch - the hardware sales projection for the financial year has been increased by 4 million units, while the software projection has increased from 35 to 50 million units. 3DS projections remain unchanged.

Nintendo Switch

Hardware Sales (Q1+Q2) — 4.89 million units
Hardware Sales (life to date) — 7.63 million units
Hardware Sales Projection (2017 to 2018) — 14 million units

Software Sales (Q1+Q2) — 22.02 million units
Software Sales Projection (2017 to 2018) — 50 million units

3DS

Hardware Sales (Q1+Q2) — 2.86 million units
Hardware Sales (life to date) — 68.98 million units
Hardware Sales Projection (2017 to 2018) — 6 million units

Software Sales (Q1+Q2) — 13.82 million units
Software Sales Projection (2017 to 2018) — 40 million units

Nintendo Mobile + IP Related Income

17.9 billion Yen (approx $158 million)

The broader financial projections for this financial year — 1st April 2017 to 31st March 2018 — have been increased in light of the positive results. Net sales are expected to hit 960,000 million Yen, a massive 96.3% increase over the previous year that would represent the best annual results in a number of years. The operating profit projection has nearly doubled to 120,000 million Yen, which would be another notable big result for Nintendo and an increase of 308.7% over the previous year.

All told the results are undoubtedly a significant positive for Nintendo. Estimates that some considered to be over-cautious have finally been increased, and paint a picture of a strong Switch market and decent potential in mobile. The 3DS also looks set to still hold its own, though seems particularly reliant upon Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon sales.

For fans of the company the basic summary is this - Nintendo is having a great year.

[source nintendo.co.jp]