Things Suddenly Aren’t Looking Good For Nintendo

Written By Jeff Nau

When Nintendo reports its earnings for the first part of the 2012 fiscal year, they’ll be bringing a bit of bad news to the table: a huge net loss, totaling nearly ¥100 billion ($1.32B). This is a greater amount than originally expected, as analysts were predicting losses worth only half that. When the fiscal year finally concludes in March, Nintendo believes that its yearly profit will be a (mere) 461 million, or ¥35 billion.

It wasn’t like they didn’t see this coming — in July the company re-arranged its budgetary and financial outlook and announced sales would likely only reach ¥20 billion, 15 billion less than what they actually made. Financial experts insisted they had re-adjusted their financial outlook primarily to include a depreciated Yen as well as a decrease in costs of the 3DS system.

Obviously all of these are just numbers, but as the Examiner reported back in August, and as the fiscal year begins to wind down, more and more experts are reaching a consensus: Nintendo is in serious financial trouble. From May to August the company lost about ¥26 billion ($255 million), and their stock plummeted about 21%.

So with Nintendo facing their first Annual loss ever, is this a cause for concern or a sign that the company is simply human? With the evolution of mobile gaming it’s clear that devices like the DS aren’t as appealing as they were upon their release (although the device still has sold 6.68 million units). Nintendo does have the holiday season coming up, in addition to the anticipated release of “Super Mario 3D Land” (yes another Mario game) so there is some hope on the horizon.

Haterz have called out Nintendo in the past, and the company has never failed to come back and responded, but with some major financial losses, Nintendo must once again show their resiliency.

[Via Joystiq]

---

« Stephen King’s The Dark Tower to Go to HBO;... | « The Strange Origins of Supercommuter

---