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NINTENDO SAID IT swung to $350 million (€307 million) annual profit thanks to a weak yen and upbeat sales of its Wii U console, but the Japanese videogame giant warned its bottom line would shrink this year.
The Super Mario creator reported a 41.8 billion yen ($350 million) net profit for the fiscal year to March – reversing 23.2 billion yen loss a year ago – while it forecasted a lower 35 billion yen net profit this fiscal year.
Revenue in the latest period slipped 3.8% to 549.8 billion yen (€4.05 billion), it said, as the company was hit by weaker demand for its 3DS portable games console.
The company is hoping to offset weakening demand for some of its consoles with plans to jump into the smartphone gaming market – a long awaited move away from its consoles-only policy.
“A new source of revenue is expected from a gaming application for smart devices which will be released this year,” Nintendo said Thursday.
A sharp drop in the yen has helped make Japanese exporters such as Nintendo more competitive overseas while it also inflates the value of their repatriated profits.
The company benefited from stronger sales of the Wii U, shifting 3.38 million units against 2.72 million units in the year-earlier period, while sales of game software rose nearly 30%.
“With respect to ‘Wii U,’ Nintendo released two hit titles, ‘Mario Kart 8′ and ‘Super Smash Bros. for Wii U,’ which enjoyed robust sales,” it said in a statement.
“These titles continued to perform well especially overseas, and the global sales of the ‘Wii U’ hardware and software reached 3.38 million and 24.40 million units respectively,” it added.
The relatively strong results come as Nintendo moves past three straight years of operating losses.
Last year, company president Satoru Iwata said he would slash his salary in half for several months to atone for the struggles at the one-time industry titan.
The maker of the Donkey Kong and Pokemon franchises has struggled as rivals Sony and Microsoft outpaced it in console sales.
All three companies are also fighting off a trend toward cheap – or sometimes free – downloadable games for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Nintendo is also looking beyond consoles and smartphones having announced a partnership with Universal Parks and Resorts. The two announced plans to create a Nintendo theme park featuring some of the company’s most iconic games and characters.
“The agreement brings two icons of entertainment together and represents a significant partnership for Nintendo as it expands the reach and popularity of its characters and intellectual property,” said a statement from the two companies.
(Additional reporting by Quinton O’Reilly)
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A mariokart app would go down well
I would love for them to implement their games for iOS/Android (albeit you can get emulator + ROMs for Android). I don’t think Nintendo will ever go down that route, unfortunately.
It would have to be multiplayer though.
It only makes sense for them to get into the app market, they’ll make a killing. Looking forward to donkey kong :)
Pity they don’t make proper consoles like the SNES and N64..
I bought a SNES in the last 2-3 years on eBay and the Nintendo Scope was part of the deal. I was so excited to hook it up to my TV and play it, but unfortunately the Nintendo Scope requires a CRT TV whereas I was using a new HDTV.
The N64′s Zelda OOT, Mario Kart + Lylat Wars were my favorite. Me and my housemate took out Goldeneye recently to play on multiplayer, I cannot understand how I was able to play the game so easily back in the day, the gameplay was now a nightmare to control.
They have been releasing their back catalogue from those consoles on the eshop.
Nintendo are in no fear of running out of money:
It’s about time they brought out a real console and not the underpowered gimmick machines
The SNES was the first games console I ever owned. What a brilliant little console that was and had some of the greatest games if all time – Mario Kart, Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, Star Wars, StarFox, Prince of Persia, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong , Castlevania, Doom …the list goes on. Another thing the did brill was the music that accompanied their games esp the Mario and Zelda series..awesome but they went ar#eways after that thanks to the emergence of the PlayStation.
Make a new Advance Wars lads
Still play the old ones to this day
I guess it’s like Nokia trying to compete with Apple & Samsung.
PS & Xbox just keep kicking arse.
The original Wii out sold the combined sales of Xbox and play station last outing. It also has the biggest selling games machines of all time.
They also make more money on every machine and games they sell.
They have survived along time out living pretty much all it’s competitors.
I miss sonic the hedgehog…
Ninty wont run out of cash anytime soon. They seem to operate within a bubble outside of where Sony and Microsoft compete and seems to be working for them. The mobile deal with DeNA to produce licensed Nintendo games for Android/iOS seems a smart move too.
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