Nintendo said on Friday that its first-quarter net profit more than halved as sales of the seven-year-old Switch slowed and fans anxiously awaited news about the successor to the hit console.
The Japanese video game giant left its low net profit guidance unchanged, even as the yen’s relative weakness continues to boost earnings.
“During the first quarter of the previous fiscal year, hardware and software unit sales were exceptionally high for the first quarter,” Nintendo said.
A year ago, the massive success of the “Super Mario Bros” movie and the release of “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” — the fastest-selling game in the history of the nearly four-decade Zelda franchise — helped fuel of businesses.
But “there were no such special factors in the first quarter of this fiscal year, and with the Nintendo Switch now in its eighth year since launch, both hardware and software unit sales declined significantly year-on-year.”
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In April-June, net profit fell 55% year-on-year to 80.95 billion yen ($543 million).
Nintendo kept its annual net profit forecast unchanged at 300 billion yen, down nearly 40 percent from 490 billion yen in 2023-24.
Unit sales for the blockbuster Switch console, which became essential during the pandemic lockdown, fell 46% year-on-year to 2.1 million during the quarter.
Gamers and investors are hungry for news about the Switch’s successor, and Nintendo has said an announcement won’t come until the end of March 2025.
“In general, Nintendo is in a bit of an awkward position right now,” Serkan Toto of Tokyo-based Kantan Games told AFP ahead of the earnings announcement.
“It’s a transition year for them with no big releases planned,” because “they have to save the blockbusters for the next platform.”
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He predicted that Nintendo will announce the new console in late 2024 or early 2025, an expectation echoed by Darang Candra, research director for East and Southeast Asia at Niko Partners.
Candra told AFP that Nintendo’s game lineup until the end of March 2025 is “just so-so” although new “Zelda” and “Mario & Luigi” titles “may tide fans over until then.”
“The past year has seen several remakes and re-releases like ‘Paper Mario’ and ‘Luigi’s Mansion,’ which also suggest that the company is focusing its development on new, original titles that will be released with the next console,” he said.
Source: AFP