Nintendo reported a halving in quarterly profit, roughly in line with expectations after it slashed its forecasts last month due to a strong yen and a delayed launch of its 3D-capable handheld game machine.
The weak result underscores the uphill battle facing Nintendo, the world's leading video game machine maker, as it fends off price competition from traditional rivals Microsoft and Sony and faces new competitors in Apple and other makers of game-playing smartphones.
Nintendo's profits have slumped sharply after a three-year run of record earnings through March 2009. The maker of the Wii console and DS handheld player sees profits slumping to about 60 percent of their annual peak in the current year to next March.
Nintendo hopes the new 3D DS model, due to hit shelves in the United States in March after a delay that means it will miss the key year-end holiday shopping season, will help revive growth.
The company said it July-September operating profit was 30.89 billion yen ($378.1 million), compared with a 63.96 billion yen profit a year earlier.
Nintendo kept its operating profit forecast at 210 billion yen. It had revised down its forecast on September 29th when it announced the delay of the DS launch. Analysts are a bit more optimistic, predicting a profit of 234.5 billion yen.
Nintendo shares closed down 0.7 per cent at 21,290 yen ahead of the results, against a 0.2 per cent fall in the broader market.
They have fallen about 7 per cent since the forecast revision on September 29th, against a 2 per cent decline in the benchmark Nikkei average.
Reuters