According to sources close to Nintendo, the company is about to post a mid-year loss of about $1.3 billion which exceeds even the company's own worst case scenario for the report.
The loss would end up being 2x larger than Nintendo was predicting and about 20x larger than last year's loss for the mid-year report.
Slower than usual release schedule by Nintendo contributed to a than normal sales for both hardware and Nintendo published software. The weak sales by the 3DS in comparisons to expectations also hurt while Nintendo also allowed third parties more selling time before pumping out the big sellers by the company.
Quote:
Profits are supposedly down a staggering ¥100 billion ($1.3 billion), which is twice what Nintendo forecast.
The two major culprits are struggling hardware sales and the stubbornly strong Japanese yen. Nintendo makes 80 percent of its profits from foreign sales, and lost a whopping ¥40 billion yen in foreign exchange. That's $526 million gone right there—poof.
Many Japanese companies have recently been complaining about the strong Japanese yen, threatening to move production abroad. Nintendo, who does not manufacture hardware in Japan, shows just how painful the strong yen is even for those companies who have already moved their manufacturing offshore.
Yet even with these huge losses, Nintendo still expects to turn a profit of ¥35 billion ($460 million), the lowest in the company's past 27 years and less than the company lost on the exchange rate.
|
The only good news for the company is their big releases for both the 3DS and Wii arrives after the report which is expected to help the company post a profit for the overall fiscal year ending in March 2012. The rumored Wii U launch would also help boost next year's mid-term report.
In terms of actual revenue, the company did make money for the mid-year but not at the expected rate the company nor analysts predicted. It was low enough to dethrone Nintendo from #1 spot in Japan in years with Namco-Bandi making the most money for the mid-term period even though the numbers were close.
http://www.screwattack.com/news/nint...ole-its-pocket
http://kotaku.com/5853416/report-nintendo-bleeding-cash
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Quick News Round-Up:
1) The European version of the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection has been delayed from a late 2011 date to now a February 3rd, 2012 with no official reason given by Konami. The US/Canada and Japan versions will still arrive on time for its November 8, 2011 release date.
2) Japan's biggest gaming magazine, Famitsu, reveals memory cards are an absolute requirement for PS Vita games that don't have save ability built-in. The Vita will end up refusing to boot games if a memory card is not inserted.
List of known launch games requiring the mem stick =>
http://www.screwattack.com/news/some...ut-memory-card
3) While Sega is reviving the Classic Sonic gameplay for the upcoming Sonic Generations game, the company announces they have no plans of making another Sonic game in the classic style outside of Sonic 4. The brand manager for the company admitted the only reason Classic Sonic was brought back was only due to the 20th anniversary of the series and not an actual business decision for future games.