games
Nintendo lowers annual forecast
A Nintendo Switch. photo
© picture alliance / Christophe Gateau/dpa
Is the switch slowly running out of air? Actually, Nintendo has always been able to rely on the Christmas business and its console. Now the traditional Japanese company is lowering its forecasts.
Nintendo’s Switch game console is losing traction after six years. On Tuesday, the Japanese games specialist lowered its sales forecast for the fiscal year running until the end of March from 19 million to 18 million devices. The usual push in the Christmas business was less this time than in the past two years, Nintendo admitted.
The Switch is the foundation of Nintendo’s business because more devices in use translates into higher sales of in-house game titles. The console, with which you can play both on the go and on TV, was launched in March 2017. There is now a version with an improved OLED display, but unlike Sony’s Playstation or Microsoft’s Xbox, the Switch still doesn’t offer a higher 4K resolution for sharper images. With more than 122 million devices sold in different models, the Switch is the most successful Nintendo console.
Overall, Nintendo sold 14.91 million Switch consoles in the retail channels in the first nine months of the fiscal year. That was a good fifth less than in the same period last year. Before the Christmas quarter, sales were slowed down by the shortage of components, which is now over, it said.
Referring to the business development and unfavorable exchange rates, Nintendo also lowered the sales and profit forecast. Revenues of 1.6 trillion yen (11.3 billion euros) are now expected for the financial year instead of the previous 1.65 trillion yen. In terms of profit, Nintendo expects 370 billion yen (2.6 billion euros) instead of the previously announced 400 billion yen.