Nintendo Profits Fall Over 60 Percent On Tough Comparison

Nintendo on Thursday reported a decrease in sales and profit for its first fiscal quarter ended in June, as its software lineup for the most recent financial period had a tough time measuring up to last year's lineup of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Fit. Profits for the Kyoto, Japan-based company dropped 60.6 percent to ¥42.3 billion ($442.9 million), while sales dropped 40 percent to ¥253.5 billion ($2.65 billion). Aside from a tough comparison, Nintendo said the appreciation of the yen also negatively impacted revenues. Nintendo said in its console business, there were "fewer blockbuster titles that briskly drove hardware sales" during the June quarter compared to last year. Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit launched in overseas markets in Q1 2008, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl released just prior, all of which were big commercial hits. Nintendo Wii hardware sales suffered as a result, as the console sold 2.23 million units during the quarter worldwide, down from 5.17 million a year ago. Wii hardware has sold 52.62 million units life-to-date. Worldwide sales of Wii software during the quarter were 31.07 million. The Nintendo DS line of handheld hardware sold 5.97 million units during the quarter, 3.65 million of which were from sales of the newer DSi hardware. Total DS hardware sales for the same quarter last year were 6.94 million. The highly-successful handheld has sold 107.75 million units life-to-date. Worldwide sales of DS software during the quarter, driven by games like Pokemon Platinum, hit 29.09 million units. Nintendo expects to sell 26 million units of Wii hardware this year, and 30 million DS hardware units this fiscal year in total.