Tokyo: Nintendo Co. Ltd has faced losses in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss, its first at an operating level, as it battles a strong yen and its games devices lose ground to gadgets such as Apple’s iPhone.
The creator of the Super Mario franchise dominated the video games industry for years with its DS handheld players and Wii home consoles.
The company said it now expects to sell far fewer 3DS machines, which feature three-dimensional images, at 14 million machines for the full fiscal year through to March 2012, down from an earlier 16 million.
Kyoto-based Nintendo also lowered its forecast for the fiscal year through to a 65 billion yen (£538 million) loss, much larger than the 20 billion yen (£165 million) loss projected earlier. It had marked a 77.62 billion yen (£637 million) profit the previous fiscal year.
Nintendo, which also makes the Wii home console, racked up a loss of 48.35 billion yen (£400 million) for the first nine months of the fiscal year ending in March 2012. That was a reversal from a 49.56 billion yen (£407 million) profit the same period in 2010. Nintendo did not break down quarterly numbers.
The strong yen has also hurt Nintendo’s bottom line. The dollar has been trading at about 77 yen lately, down from about 83 yen a year ago.
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