Nintendo reported a 52 per cent slide in quarterly profit today, hurt by slowing demand for its flagship Wii videogame console and the strong yen, and slashed its full-year forecast.
Demand for Nintendo products has cooled as rival Sony has bolstered its line-up of console games, and as Apple's iPhone has become a popular platform for handheld games.
Nintendo's earnings, like those of other Japanese exporters, have been blunted by the stronger yen, which eats into overseas profits.
Nintendo, which also faces stiff competition in the videogame market from Microsoft Corp, posted an operating profit of 64 billion yen ($709 million) in the July-September quarter, compared with 133 billion yen a year earlier.
Nintendo cut its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2010 by a quarter to 370 billion yen, ending a three-year run during which it booked a record profit on booming demand for its Wii console and DS portable device.
In September, Sony's Playstation 3 usurped Nintendo's Wii to become the top-selling US video game console for the first time since its release, according to research group NPD.
Shares of Nintendo finished down 1.1 per cent ahead of the results. The stock has declined about 28 per cent so far this year, compared with a 14 per cent rise in the Nikkei 225 share average.
Reuters