Nintendo Cuts Profit Forecast On Declining Hardware

Japanese-headquartered DS and Wii creator Nintendo expects to see its yearly profit decline for the first time this generation -- and has cut its profit forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 2010 to ¥230 billion ($2.53 billion). The company previously forecast profits of ¥300 billion ($3.30 billion) for the year. But with Wii sales nearly halved over the past six months -- 5.75 million sold compared with 10 million in the same period last year -- the company's first half has taken a hit. Profits in the March-September 2009 months were a still impressive ¥69.5 billion ($772 million), even with a 52 percent year-over-year decline, and sales during the six month period fell 35 percent to ¥548 billion ($6 billion). Although Nintendo blamed the strong yen and Wii price reductions for the weakening performance, it also said that despite a strong performance from Wii Sports Resort, "there were fewer [Wii] software titles that briskly drove hardware sales this six-month period versus the same period a year ago." Nintendo revealed new life-to-date unit sales totals for its hardware alongside the results; Wii has now sold 56.14 million units worldwide, while DS has reached 113.48, 11.7 million of which were sold during the past six months. Nintendo also said that its first party Wii and DS software sales have reached 76.21 and 71.15 million units, respectively.