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Tomy Blames Nintendo For Losses

Japanese toy maker Tomy has blamed a cut in its full year financial forecasts on competition from the Nintendo DS and Wii, claiming that Nintendo’s consoles stole demand for traditional toys over the last nine months.

David Jenkins, Blogger

February 20, 2007

1 Min Read
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Japanese toy maker Tomy has blamed a cut in its full year financial forecasts on competition from the Nintendo DS and Wii. The company slashed its annual net profit forecasts by two thirds to ¥1.7 billion ($14m) for the year ending March 31st – down from a previous forecast of ¥5 billion and an average analyst projection of ¥4.4 billion. According to a Reuters report, the company indicated that sales of character goods and card games for boys were sluggish in Japan, as a result of Nintendo’s home and portable consoles which “stole demand for traditional toys”. Ironically, the company left its sales forecast for the year untouched at ¥170 billion, in large part because of low-profit revenues gained from acting as a wholesaler of Nintendo products. Tomy’s (known in Japan as TakaraTomy, following a merger last year with Transformers toy creator Takara) forays into the video game industry have been sporadic and normally associated with each company’s primary toy lines, such as Zoids and Choro-Q (aka Penny Racers), though it did co-publish some recent Naruto titles in the U.S. with D3 Publisher.

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2007

About the Author

David Jenkins

Blogger

David Jenkins ([email protected]) is a freelance writer and journalist working in the UK. As well as being a regular news contributor to Gamasutra.com, he also writes for newsstand magazines Cube, Games TM and Edge, in addition to working for companies including BBC Worldwide, Disney, Amazon and Telewest.

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