14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo has reported its financial results for the first fiscal quarter of the year and it's not a pretty sight. Arguably the most important force in videogaming at the moment, with strong businesses in both hardware and software, it has told investors that it has seen profit go down by more than 60% to reach 442.9 million, while the sales revenue went down by only 40% to 2.65 billion dollars.
The Japanese company is in no way in a precarious financial position as it has posted profits at a moment when everyone from Sony to Electronic Arts seems to be losing money.
The main cause of the fall is the tough comparison with the same period in 2008, when Nintendo appeared to be able to do nothing wrong. In the early summer of 2008, players all over the world were getting their first glimpses at Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii.
The demand for the games, some of which are still popping up in the charts one year later, also drove up sales of the Wii. The console sold 5.17 million units last year and just 2.23 million this year. In the same time frame, the DS also lost some sales, under 1 million, but its decline was limited, probably by the release of the newer DSi.
Nintendo also quoted the appreciation of the yen as a reason for its falling profits and said that the rest of the year would likely see the situation improving as the economy rebounds worldwide. The Japanese hardware company believes that it will sell a total of 26 million units of Wiis during 2009 and 30 million DS handhelds.
Considering that data for the first quarter, these projections might be a bit too ambitious but sales of Nintendo’s hardware typically increase in a dramatic fashion as Christmas draws near.