Andre Yoskowitz
29 Jan 2011 0:50
Nintendo has reported their earnings for the 9-month period ended December 2010, and net profit fell a whopping 74 percent, to ¥49.56 billion ($600 million USD) from ¥192.60 billion ($2.34 billion) in the same period in 2009.
The gaming company attributed the drop to a wildly stronger yen and a lack of compelling software titles for its DS and Wii consoles.
Overall revenue fell 32 percent to ¥807.99 billion ($9.8 billion) from ¥1.182 trillion ($14.4 billion).
Because Nintendo makes about 80 percent of its sales outside of Japan, most of its cash assets are held in foreign currency, like pounds, USD and euros. As the yen continues to gain strength, the value of those currencies decreases, forcing Nintendo to book appraisal losses.
Those losses remain as "paper losses" until the company converts back to yen, but they still hurt the books on a "net" basis.
Outside of the yen, software and hardware sales fell, as well.
Wii sales fell 20 percent to 13.72 million and DS sales collapsed 33 percent to 15.70 million.
Nintendo hopes to halt the slide in sales with the launch of the 3DS handheld in March, with internal expectations to sell 4 million units in its first month.