Nintendo said that the Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games for Nintendo Switch set all-time sales records for the company. Pokémon is one of Nintendo’s longest running and most popular franchises.
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nintendo on Tuesday cut the outlook for sales of its Nintendo Switch console and games and slashed its profit outlook for its current fiscal year.
The Japanese gaming giant said it now expects to sell 18 million Switch units for the fiscal year ending March 2023, down from a previous forecast of 19 million. Nintendo said it now also expects sales of 205 million software units, down from a previous projection of 210 million units.
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Nintendo cut its net profit outlook to 370 billion Japanese yen ($2.8 billion) from an earlier 400 billion yen.
The company said the reason for cutting hardware sales expectations is because the Switch “did not perform as well as expected” during the holiday season.
Electronics manufacturers are facing a tough macroeconomic environment.
“Nintendo couldn’t completely stop being a victim of the current economic climate and may find itself disappointing this quarter,” Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based game consultancy Kanton Games, told CNBC.
Another issue Nintendo has is that its Switch console is almost six years old. Sony’s rival PlayStation 5 is just over two years old. Nintendo released a version of the Switch with an upgraded display in October 2021. Now, investors are wondering when the company can release new hardware to revive sales.
“There is definitely new hardware in the works, the big question mark is when it will be released and will it be an upgraded Switch, even more so a ‘Switch 2’ or an entirely new platform,” Toto said.
Nintendo sold about 8.23 million Switch consoles in the December holiday quarter, down about 22% year-over-year.
While Nintendo is struggling, its rival Sony This month raised its PS5 sales target by one million units to 19 million for the year ending March.
pokemon record
There were some bright spots in Nintendo’s earnings report. The company said digital sales of Nintendo games rose 10.2% year-on-year to 122.1 billion yen in the December quarter, marking record quarterly sales for the period.
Nintendo said that its new Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games, which were released on November 18, sold 18.2 million units in seven weeks of release, the “fastest debut of any title for a Nintendo dedicated video game platform”. ” Is.
The Japanese gaming giant is also gearing up for the May release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, one of its most popular franchises, which analysts say could help the company .
“Not only the next Zelda, but also the next Switch upgrade can’t come soon enough,” Toto said.
