Nintendo has posted a first-half loss of 70.2 billion yen (£578 million), far greater than the 2 billion yen (£16.5 million) loss suffered during the same period last year.
The platform holder said in a statement that its annual net loss may reach 20 billion yen (£165 million), the same total the company previously projected in profit.
Its full year sales forecast was cut from 900 billion yen (£7.4 billion) to 790 billion yen (£6.5 billion), while operating profit may be 1 billion yen (£8.2 million), versus 35 billion yen (£288 million) predicted earlier.
"Sales of Nintendo DS hardware and Nintendo 3DS software were weaker than expected," the company said. "In addition, the yen appreciation was beyond expectation."
Nintendo hasn't reported a full-year net loss since at least 1981, according to data on its website. The company's shares have fallen 53 percent year-to-date.
Last month, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata shot down the possibility of the company turning to mobile games development to boost its profits.
Comments
15 comments so far...
Sentinator on 27 Oct '11 said:
Its not even as bad as the paper was making out. Still very bad but meh they will make the money back slowly. Every time some bad news about a company comes up the Internet spins a frenzy on it. I'm guilty of jumping the gun here.
Note the way it says 3DS software. The more this goes on the more I'm convinced the 3DS has been selling better than people keep thinking.
Athrun888 on 27 Oct '11 said:
Hopefully this'll force them to pull their swollen head out of their backside. Serves them right for releasing a system, deliberately inflating it's price because people were excited, and then leaving it with a complete lack of any worthwhile games for almost a year (by worthwhile games I mean system sellers, it doesn't have a single one and nothing I've seen of the upcoming Mario games makes me think they're going to be system sellers on their own (and how cliché is it that Nintendo is falling back on Mario, I'm getting so damn bored of that IP)).
And all that in the current financial climate was just moronic on Nintendo's part, if anything I expect the Wii U to fail even harder though, I've no idea what the f**k it's supposed to be (unlike the 3ds), no idea who it's aimed at. Which doesn't bode well in the current financial climate. Not to mention it looks expensive, methinks they would've been better off making a traditional system, because it stinks of trying to be different for the sake of it imo.
Agent75 on 27 Oct '11 said:
The 3DS launched at £229, hate to think what the Wii U launch price is going to be. 3DS games costing upto £40 each, how much are Wii U games going to cost? The high price of the Wii U will add more to Nintendo's losses. Plus the lack of Nintendo branded games doesn't help.
MD1500 on 27 Oct '11 said:
While this is bad, it's not as bad as the £823 million certain sites were expecting.
Hopefully, the Christmas period will turn things around.
mogel94 on 27 Oct '11 said:
Maybe they'll make more money over here if they got a marketing team who weren't obsessed with X Factor rejects.
KK-Headcharge78 on 27 Oct '11 said:
It's times like this I wish Ninty would do a rival console to the PS3 and Xbox, their current console feels so far away from my personal tastes it makes me sad, I do have the memories though, god bless the NES, SNES and N64
Drusus on 27 Oct '11 said:
If you're not posting a £578 million loss, 'what's wrong with you?'
squatch on 27 Oct '11 said:
Microsoft and Sony lost billions of dollars for quite a few consecutive years. What are the excuses for that from the Nintendo hating few? ...
djreplay on 27 Oct '11 said:
That was nearly 3 or 4 year's ago when they were losing money, not long after releasing there console's.
Sentinator on 27 Oct '11 said:
Which is exactly whats happening with Nintendo now. In other news 3DS has sold 6.68 million worldwide. More than the DS had at this point in time.
PMIKE5 on 27 Oct '11 said:
Just goes to show that when you sell no games, no one will buy them.
LordVonPS3 on 27 Oct '11 said:
As much as I really do enjoy if not love a lot of Nintendo's older titles, I've struggled to keep pace with their more recent stuff. Much just hasn't quite appealed. Wii Music? As for Ninty's hardware, it has always been just about passable and only on account of custom chips. For example, the awesome SNES only ran at 3MHz needing cartridge based DSPs and the SuperFX chip to tug games into areas the CPU just couldn't push them.
I'm going to have to say it and risk being hated even more by the CVG faithful... Oh well, someone has to and seeing as no-one else will. It is time for Nintendo to abandon the console manufacturing business. Ninty, make your games for the other consoles (and the PC). You can still bundle and / or sell your typically rubbish rubber strap-on snap-offs separately and all the soccer moms will eat it up like good little you know whats.
Less cost for Ninty = more profit for Ninty. The games could sell just on brand alone. Less cost for consumers = a bargain and a bigger market to sell to (not having to buy a console) means many many millions of Ninty games will sell. Lose the console Nintendo, there's really no reason to keep shovelling out comparatively old CPU / GPU tech. There's only so many gimmicks like the Wii U tablet controller you can come up with to sell everything else and really - there's no reason that Wii U controller couldn't work with a PS3 instead.
JuiKuen on 27 Oct '11 said:
I've always loved Nintendo's games and consoles. My best memories are the SNES and N64 times. I play all their new stuff now (2010's stuff was just some of their best in recent years), but I've always said to myself the 3DS and Wii U will be my last consoles. I can't see where Nintendo will go after these two, but I won't be around for them.
Actually, I mean that for all consoles in general
djreplay on 27 Oct '11 said:
I can't imagine nintendo investing as much in the 3DS as Sony and MS did with the PS3/360.
Sentinator on 27 Oct '11 said:
I agree. What I think could happen is Nintendo at most try a redesign and if that doesn't set the world on fire they will pull the plug. I hope the 3DS manages to pull through for them in the end. I still think it is doing fine for the problems with the economy. I will love this machine even if it fails. I seriously think its one of the best systems of all time and I don't regret my purchase one bit.
And though I won't support them I also wish Sony the best of luck in their next venture. It doesn't matter who you support. Dropping out is bad news all round for the industry. If the 3DS' hardship is any indication, Sony are going to need it.