Nintendo Profits Halve

Officials from Nintendo have announced that the company’s profits have fallen by half from the previous year, inline with predictions given last month. For the year ended March 31 the company saw a group net profit of ¥33.2 billion ($299.6m), down from ¥67.3 billion ($607.3m) the previous year. Revenues were ¥514.8 billion ($4.65bn), up 2.1% from 2002-2003. The company has blamed the disappointing results on the weak yen, which has hurt the company’s profits before due its considerable overseas holdings, and relatively weak sales of the GameCube. Officials have indicated that profits for the coming year are expected to be considerably better, in part due to the launch of the new Nintendo DS portable console. Analysts have been welcoming of the company’s future plans with Hiroshi Kamide of KBC Securities commenting, "We're also very happy with the forecasts." In related news officials once again indicated that the successor to the GameCube would be shown at the 2005 E3 Expo, suggesting that the new console could be launched in Japan that year. Source: CNN Money