For the last few years Nintendo has been riding high on the runaway success of the Wii console but now that success appears to slowing considerably. Sales and profit at the Japanese games company fell sharply during the first half of its financial year as demand for the console dropped.
Nintendo sold 5.75 million Wii consoles during the April to September period, down 43 per cent on the same period a year earlier, it said on Thursday. It also cut its full-year sales forecast for the period from April 2009 to March 2010 to 20 million consoles because of the poor results. It had been hoping to sell 26 million.
The sharp drop in Wii sales was attributed to a lack of big-name games, which often produce a bump in sales as they draw new users to a platform. The strong Japanese yen didn't help the company, because it reduced the value of sales and profits made overseas in yen terms. A price cut for the Wii also hit revenue, but helped unit sales.
Nintendo reported sales of ¥548 billion ($6 billion) for the period, down 35 per cent on the same period a year ago, while net profit crashed 52 per cent to ¥69 billion.
The figures mean that Nintendo missed its own targets by a wide margin. In May it forecast sales during the half year would hit ¥700 billion and net profit would come in at ¥100 billion.
Sales of the handheld DS fared better than the Wii, thanks to the launch in April of a new version of the device outside of Japan, but DS sales were still down by 15 per cent, at 11.7 million units.
Wii software sales fell 6 per cent to 76.2 million units, and sales of DS titles fell 16 per cent to 71.1 million units.
Looking ahead the company cut its financial outlook and said it expects to end the financial year in March 2010 with lower sales and profits than last year, although not as low as those reported for the first half. It expects sales of ¥1.5 trillion and net profit of ¥230 billion. Those figures, if achieved, would each represent drops of 18 per cent on its results in the previous year.
Check out our new Macworld Mobile site.
Contact Us
Digg
It's easy and free to get the latest news headlines, reviews and opinions straight to your email inbox. Sign up NOW to make sure you receive the latest Mac news, reviews and tutorials on your favourite topics.
Comments received
Badger said on Thu, 29 Oct 2009
Wii sales have dropped because everyone who wanted one has had at least 3 years to buy one, and has done.
It's not rocket science.
Looking at the sales of games and accessories would be more accurate.
Ynda said on Thu, 29 Oct 2009
The Wii has not had ANY games of any note. Nintendo announced the MotionPlus add-on but since it has been available there has been only the Wii Sports Resort (and a couple of sports titles) to have used it. It has been a big disappointment.
@Ynda said on Thu, 29 Oct 2009
The big games are coming out for the holiday season.
Disclaimer
Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Macworld. Macworld accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content.
Click here to read the house rules.
Click here for the latest reader comments