Nintendo Posts Six-Month Loss In Face Of Rising Yen And Falling Sales

Nintendo today posted a six-month loss of ¥2 billion ($24.7 million) for the period ended September 30, 2010, down from a ¥69.5 billion ($854.5 million) profit in the same timeframe in 2009. It's the first time in seven years that Nintendo posted a first-half loss. The company expects annual profits to drop 60 percent year-on-year ¥90 billion ($1.1 billion) for the fiscal year ending March 2011, the lowest level in six years. The losses were put down to the strength of the yen, falling hardware sales for the company's existing systems, and the announcement that the 3DS will launch in early 2011, missing this year's holiday period. Nintendo's sales for the first half of its financial year were down 34 percent year-on-year to ¥363.2 billion ($4.48 billion). This fall is due to lower demand for its Wii console, which garnered 4.97 million global sales for the period, compared to 5.75 million in the previous year, and likewise its DS handheld, which dropped from 11.7 million units last year to 6.69 million this year. Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy 2, released in North America and Japan in May this year, and in Europe in June, sold 5.1 million units through September, the company said. Total worldwide sales of the Wii through September were 75.9 million units. Global sales of the Nintendo DS handheld line were 135.6 million units. The release of its latest figures came after the close of Thursday trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Nintendo shares closed down 0.7 percent.