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Nintendo To Report Quarter Well Below Guidance, Say Analysts

Wedbush Morgan has lowered its revenue projections ahead of Nintendo's Q2 financial report next week by nearly $92M, due to weak Q2 sales and uncertainty around the upcoming Wii U.

Frank Cifaldi, Contributor

October 21, 2011

1 Min Read
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Nintendo is expected to report revenues well below its initial financial guidance when it reports its Q2 results next week. The company's current guidance projects revenues of 175B yen (around $2.3B) for the quarter ending September 30, versus an analyst consensus of around 146B yen ($1.91B). At least one major analytical firm is projecting revenues even lower than that. On Friday, Wedbush Morgan lowered its projections from 147B to 140B yen ($1.83B), citing NPD data that shows a 4 percent hardware and 29 percent software decline for the company. The firm also said that doubt and uncertainty surrounding the company's next home console, the Wii U, should keep share prices down. "A large market opportunity may exist for the Wii U, but visibility remains limited on pricing and interest," wrote analyst Michael Pachter. "It is unlikely that the Wii U is significantly more powerful than its HD peers, in which case pricing will be the likely driver of sales." As for the 3DS, Wedbush expects the system's recent positive momentum to continue as high profile titles such as Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 are released, though warns that the system will be "challenged by the Sony PS Vita and improving games for smartphones and tablets" in the long term. Wedbush has lowered its annual projections from 900B yen ($11.8B) to 861B yen ($11.3B), and anticipates that Nintendo will lower its annual projection from 1,014B yen ($13.29B) to 900B yen ($11.8B) when it announces its results on Thursday.

About the Author

Frank Cifaldi

Contributor

Frank Cifaldi is a freelance writer and contributing news editor at Gamasutra. His past credentials include being senior editor at 1UP.com, editorial director and community manager for Turner Broadcasting's GameTap games-on-demand service, and a contributing author to publications that include Edge, Wired, Nintendo Official Magazine UK and GamesIndustry.biz, among others. He can be reached at [email protected].

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