Nintendo's sales numbers are likely to be the highest ever for the company, but a strong yen is impacting their profits.
Data regarding game sales is usually more readily available in the full fiscal year report, but Nintendo's third quarter report still contained a hefty amount of sales information.
For instance, Nintendo reported that Wii shipments through December 2008 have reached nearly 45 million worldwide. However, they revised their hardware shipments downwards, and expect to sell just 6 million more Wiis before the end of their fiscal year on March 31. This could mean that monthly Wii hardware sales in the US could return to the 600,000 or 700,000 level after the holidays. Over 312 million Wii games have shipped.
The DS hardware is reported to have lifetime worldwide shipments of 96.22 million. Of that number, 1.66 million come from the new DSi, thus far released only in Japan. Nintendo revised DS hardware forecasts up a bit, expecting to sell about 6 million more hardware units worldwide before April. Nintendo claims that lifetime-to-date shipments of DS software has reached 533 million units.
For specific titles, Nintendo reported that Pokemon Platinum version (currently only available in Japan) had sold more than 2 million units and that Kirby Super Star Ultra had performed well worldwide. They claimed that many third-party titles had also moved more than a million units in the last nine months. For the Wii, Nintendo reported that Mario Kart had shipped 13.67 million units worldwide, and that Wii Fit had shipped 14 million. Wii Play shipped 9.4 million units over the last nine months as well. Nintendo also reported favorable receptions for Wii Music and Animal Crossing: City Folk, and that "various genres of software have been well accepted by consumers" on the Wii.
Nintendo has recorded an increase in sales over the past nine months, but these gains were offset by the conditions of the global economy. Specifically, a stronger yen against the American Dollar and Euro means that Nintendo reports less yen for each overseas sale. Nintendo's last forecasts called for an exchange rate of 100 yen to the US dollar and 140 yen to the Euro. Now the Japanese company is calculating at 90 yen per US dollar and 120 yen to the Euro.
When Nintendo posted a quarterly loss in the GameCube era, a major culprit was a similar currency evaluation that did not work in their favor. However, despite Nintendo forecasting 200 billion yen in foreign exchange losses for the entire fiscal year, they still expect net sales and operating income to reach the highest level in the company's history.
NINTENDO REPORTS THIRD QUARTER FINANCIALS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2009
Global Sales Mark 17% Growth Over Previous Year
Jan. 28, 2009
Despite nearly unprecedented strength of the yen against major foreign currencies, Nintendo Co., Ltd. on Thursday (Japan time) reported 9-month (April to December 2008) global sales of 1,536 billion yen, an increase of nearly 17% over the same period in 2007, along with 501 billion yen of operating profits, up 27% from a year ago. This marks the fourth consecutive year that Nintendo Co., Ltd. has exceeded the previous results for the same nine month period. At the same time, recurring and net profits for the same nine month periods each declined about 18% due to 174 billion yen of foreign currency reevaluation losses from assets held in currencies other than Japanese yen (such as bank deposits without forward exchange contracts).
For the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, the company revised its unit sales forecast for the portable Nintendo DS™ system upward by 3% to 31.5 million globally, while the DS software forecast was lowered by 7% to 193 million. For the Wii™ system, with softness in the Japanese consumer market, full year global unit sales estimates for both hardware and software were revised downward by 3%, to 26.5 million systems and 193 million games, respectively, in spite of the overall robust sales outside Japan.
As a result, and with the changes in the anticipated foreign currency exchange ratios, Nintendo Co., Ltd. has revised estimates for fiscal sales and profit projections for the full year ending March 31, 2009. However, the company remained on pace to set historic records for Net Sales and Operating Profit for the full 12 month period.
Other highlights announced by Nintendo today include the following cumulative shipment figures from launch through the end of December 2008:
* Total LTD shipments of Nintendo DS hardware were 96.22 million worldwide, along with more than 533 million games.
* Total LTD Wii shipments reached nearly 45 million worldwide, along with over 312 million games.
* The LTD shipment of Wii Fit™ reached 14 million, and Mario Kart™ Wii reached 13.67 million.