Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. returned to the black for the
first nine months of its business year and more than doubled its profit
forecast for the full year, getting a perk from a weaker yen, despite
pessimism about sales prospects.
April-December profit for the
Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games totaled 14.55 billion
yen ($160 million), bouncing back from the 48.35 billion yen loss
reported a year earlier, it said Wednesday. Nine-month sales inched up
2.4 percent to 543 billion yen ($6 billion).
Nintendo raised its
profit forecast for the business year through March 2013 to 14 billion
yen ($154 million) from 6 billion yen ($66 million). The dollar has
strengthened about 14 percent against the yen in the past three months
on expectations a new government would relax monetary policy to boost
Japan's moribund economy.
But Nintendo, which didn't break down
quarterly results, isn't upbeat about its sales prospects and lowered
its full year sales forecast to 670 billion yen ($7.4 billion) from 810
billion yen ($8.9 billion).
Game machines have taken a beating
from the proliferation of smartphones and tablets that also offer games
and other entertainment, competing for people's leisure time. Some
analysts say the global market for game machines is saturated with
offerings from Nintendo, Microsoft Corp., Sony Corp. and others.
Nintendo
spokesman Makoto Wakae said sales had gone relatively well during the
key holiday shopping season late last year, but that was quickly running
out of momentum. The company expects to post an operating loss for the
year ending March 2013, the second straight year of operating losses, he
said.
The company forecasts it will sell 4 million Wii U consoles
for the fiscal year, down from its earlier estimate of 5.5 million
units. The Wii U, which went on sale late last year, was the first major
new game console to arrive in stores in years.
Nintendo, also
behind the Donkey Kong and Zelda games, lowered its full year sales
forecast for Wii U game software units to 16 million from 24 million.
Nintendo's
success was rooted in its appeal to so-called casual gamers, but they
may be the kind of people for whom smartphones and iPads are proving
attractive alternatives.
What's coming as a godsend for Nintendo
is the weakening yen, against both the dollar and the euro, as that
helps raise the value of its overseas earnings. Currency gains for the
period totaled 22 billion yen ($242 million), according to Nintendo.
Nintendo
has a lot riding on the Wii U, which has a touch-screen tablet
controller called GamePad and a TV-watching feature called TVii.
Nintendo said it sold 3 million Wii U machines so far around the world.
Nintendo
sank into a loss the previous fiscal year largely because of price cuts
for its hand-held 3DS game machine, which shows three-dimensional
imagery without special glasses. It has sold nearly 30 million 3DS
machines so far.