Nintendo Half Year Profits Up, But Full Year Forecasts Down

Profits for the first half of Nintendo’s financial year have risen by 34 percent, but the company's cutting its full-year profit forecast by 16 percent, citing the strong yen. For the six months from April to September, Nintendo's revenues grew from ¥694.8 billion ($7.03bn) last year to ¥836.9 billion ($8.47bn) this year. Profits were up from ¥132.4 billion ($1.34bn) to ¥144.8 billion ($1.47bn). Despite these positive results, the economic downturn and relative strength of the yen have forced the company to lower its net income forecast for the full year by 16 percent to ¥345 billion ($3.5bn). The company raised its full-year predictions in August, as a result of continued strong sales of the Wii and Nintendo DS. At the same time, Nintendo raised its sales forecasts for the Wii, from 26.5 million units to a new expectation of 27.5 million for the financial year – greater than the current lifetime total for either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Nintendo DS forecasts remained unchanged at 30.5 million units. The Wii sold 10.1 million units over the last six months, for a lifetime total of 34.55 million. Software sales over the same period stood at 81.41 million units, for a lifetime-to-date total of 229.85 million. Worldwide unit sales for the DS were 13.73 million over the last six months, for a lifetime-to-date total of 84.33 million. Worldwide software sales for the format stood at 85.02 million for the first half of the year, and 454.63 million lifetime-to-date. Divided by region, sales in Japan stood at ¥869.6 billion ($8.80bn), compared to 361.9 billion ($3.67bn) in Europe and ¥331 billion ($3.35bn) in the Americas.