14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has announced that it has lost 25.2 billion Yen, which is about 288.4 million dollars, during the first quarter of 2010, a period that ended on June 30. During the same period of last year Nintendo posted a profit of 42.3 billion Yen, a figure that translates to 483.7 million dollars, so that drop is pretty severe for the Japanese company who builds the Nintendo Wii home console and the Nintendo DS line up of handhelds.
The company is saying that the bad results are mainly linked to the cutting of prices for hardware on the markets in both Japan and North America and to the value of the Yen. But it seems that the biggest impact on the profits has been made by the Nintendo DS, which are no longer selling as well as they used to. Unit sales for the handheld were down by no less than 45 percent. Sales of videogames for the DS were also down, going from 29.1 million to 22.4, with the biggest performers being Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver and Tomodachi Collection.
Sales of the Nintendo Wii were up to 3.04 million units coming from 2.2 million, which would be good news is sales of software were also on the rise. Unfortunately software sales decline by about three million units, with Super Mario Galaxy 2 being the best sold title, with 4.09 units moved to gamers, followed by Wii Sports Resort.
It's unlikely that the slump Nintendo is seeing will continue in the coming quarter. Part of the slow down of the DS is linked to the impending launch of a new version of the handheld which will include full three dimensional gaming capabilities. Nintendo is saying that the 3DS will get an event in Japan on September 29, when the pricing options for the device will be announced, with the launch itself coming in about one month. Dates for Europe and North America will probably be set for early 2011.