Nintendo Co shares yesterday plunged nearly 19 percent before recouping most of those losses after the Japanese gaming giant warned it would slip back into the red on poor sales of its Wii U game console.
The warning, released after the Tokyo market closed on Friday, highlighted a growing chasm between Nintendo and global rivals Sony Corp and Microsoft Corp, as well as the trio’s battle against cheap — or sometimes free — downloadable games for smartphones and tablets.
Shareholders unloaded the stock at the opening bell yesterday after Kyoto-based Nintendo said it would lose ￥25 billion (US$240 million) in the fiscal year to March, reversing an earlier ￥55 billion net profit forecast.
Photo: Reuters
However, the shares recovered from their morning losses to close 6.14 percent lower at ￥13,745.
Nintendo, maker of the Donkey Kong and Super Mario brands, blamed the downgrade on expectations it would now sell just 2.8 million units of the Wii U worldwide in the current fiscal year.
That is less than a third of its earlier prediction for 9 million consoles, and deals a blow to high hopes it would match the blockbuster success of the original Wii.
In contrast, Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One have seen huge demand for their new consoles as the firms battle for control of a global sector worth about US$44 billion annually.
On Friday, Nintendo said that holiday season demand failed to boost flagging sales, forcing the company to slash forecasts as sales of the console’s high-margin software slumped.
For Nintendo, the grim forecast is especially disappointing after it scratched its way back to profitability last year thanks to a sharply weaker yen, which inflates Japanese firms’ repatriated profits.
“Investors had been praying for a strong recovery but what’s obvious now is that the company is lagging behind,” Daiwa Securities senior strategist Hirokazu Kabeya said. “Both the hardware and software businesses were bad. It was as if the company got a ‘no’ verdict on all aspects.”
“We should closely watch how the company will rehabilitate itself from here,” he added.
Nintendo has previously blamed weak earnings partly on high development and marketing costs for the Wii U, launched in late 2012, although sales of its 3DS handheld console and related game titles fared better. It cut prices on both consoles to boost sales.
Nintendo president Satoru Iwata apologized to shareholders at a press briefing on Friday, saying: “My duty, more than anything else, is to revive our business momentum.”
The company is to hold a briefing about its new strategy on Jan. 30.
Nintendo’s grim downgrade came as key domestic rival Sony saw record demand for its new PlayStation 4 console, which had already sold more than 4.2 million units by the start of the year.
The console was launched on Nov. 15 last year.
US rival Microsoft has also seen robust demand for its Xbox One console, which sold more than 1 million units in the 24 hours after its release in November last year.
The firms are giants in the global videogames industry, but they have faced tough economic conditions in the US and Europe, while also battling a move to smartphone games.
“One smartphone does everything for many people and so they don’t feel the need to have game consoles,” Kabeya said.
He said Nintendo had plenty of cash on hand so its balance sheet was safe for now, but “its finances will become severer and severer if thing carry on like this.”
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
RSS