Japanese videogame giant Nintendo said yesterday it suffered a net loss of US$25 million for the six months to last month, hit by a strong yen and a fall in sales of game consoles and software.
Nintendo’s group net loss came to ¥2 billion (US$25 million), reversing a net profit of ¥69.5 billion a year earlier.
Group operating profit tumbled 48 percent to ¥54.2 billion and sales fell 33.7 percent to ¥363.2 billion.
Nintendo plunged into the red as global hardware sales of its DS handheld game console tumbled 43 percent to 6.69 million units. Worldwide sales of DS software fell 23 percent to 54.84 million units.
The disappointing figures came despite Nintendo scoring a huge success with new Pocket Monsters software for the DS in Japan last month.
“In the United States and Europe, however, this software has not been released yet and there were few hit titles that could lead hardware sales strongly,” the Kyoto-based company said in a statement.
Global sales of the Wii console with a motion-controller also shrank.
The yen’s rise against other major currencies, including a 15-year-high against the dollar, also hurt earnings and the book value of Nintendo’s assets denominated in foreign currencies, it said.
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