Nintendo Co cut its sales and operating profit outlook for the year, as the popularity of Pokemon Go failed to make up for sliding sales of its 3DS and Wii U games.
Operating profit for the fiscal year through March would be ¥30 billion (US$288 million), down from the previous outlook of ¥45 billion, the Kyoto-based company said in a statement yesterday.
Revenue would now be ¥470 billion instead of ¥500 billion, it said.
Investors are looking for signs that Nintendo’s embrace of mobile gaming will pay off, with the company’s shares up more than 45 percent this year.
The results showed a limited impact from the summer’s blockbuster hit Pokemon Go, which is partially owned by Nintendo.
Anticipation is building for Super Mario Run, the company’s first game for the iPhone, which is to debut in December.
The shift is critical because the game maker is facing slowing sales of existing platforms and it failed to impress investors last week when it introduced its next-generation console, the Switch.
Nintendo expects to sell 2 million units of the Switch in its first month after it goes on sale in March next year, Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima said yesterday.
He said the financial impact has already been factored into its revised forecast.
Net income for the quarter that ended last month was ¥62.8 billion, thanks to a ¥120 billion boost from Pokemon Go and a gain on the sale of a stake in the Seattle Mariners.
That topped the average projection for ¥5.76 billion.
Pokemon Go set off a social phenomenon as hundreds of millions of players worldwide ventured outside to hunt for virtual pocket monsters, but the financial impact to Nintendo is limited because the firm only owns partial stakes in the game’s developer, Niantic Inc, and Pokemon Co, which owns the license to the franchise.
Sales of the 3DS handheld device and the Wii U console, which debuted in 2011 and 2012 respectively, have continued to stagnate.
In the six months through last month, software revenue from the platforms dropped 32 percent to ¥66.7 billion, while sales of hardware declined 36 percent ¥65.9 billion.
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