14 DAY TRIAL // Video game hardware maker and publisher Nintendo is said to be close to revealing overall pre taxation losses of more than 100 billion Yen in losses, which is about 1.32 billion dollars (944 million Euro) at the current exchange rate, a figure that will make a lot of investors lose the trust they have placed in the current leadership of the company.
The reports in the Japanese media are quoting sources inside Nintendo and a number of analysts saying that the current strength of the Yen against the Euro is the biggest problem for the publisher at the moment and could account for as much as 40 billion Yen (526 million dollars).
Initial estimates from Nintendo said that the loss would only be about half of the figure reports are currently quoting and the company also expects to get about 175 billion Yen (2.3 billion dollars) in revenue, where analysts are only expecting the company to deliver the equivalent of 1.91 billion dollars.
The big problem for the company, apart from the exchange rates, is that both major lines of hardware it is selling have seen serious slowdowns when compared to the same period of last year.
The Nintendo Wii is nowhere near the top of its game and is now occupying third place in the hardware chart that is published monthly by the NPD Group, behind the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and the PlayStation 3 from Sony.
This is despite a slew of big software launches and might be linked to the fact that Nintendo has already unveiled the new Wii U console, which is expected to arrive during 2012.
The portable market has also been rather unkind to Nintendo with the new 3DS doing well immediately after launch only to then go into a slump which has prompted the company to cut its price after 6 months.