Our nostalgia for glory-days-games like Pokemon and Mario has helped Nintendo rake up decent profits for its third quarter. The Japanese video-game maker has today reported its earnings for the third quarter revealing a 2x growth in profits compared to the revenue generated the past year. Nintendo credits the increase in earnings to healthy sales of its Pokemon game (not Pokemon Go).The blockbuster game topped the charts yet again in late 2016 and only earns a fraction of profits for the gaming behemoth. The company further claims that
The blockbuster game topped the charts yet again in late 2016 and only earns a fraction of profits for the gaming behemoth. The company further claims that the 3DS, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon titles together gathered 14.69 million in sales since launch in November.
The figures curated by the company report a profit of 64.7 billion yen ($569 million) on a net revenue of 174.3 billion yen ($1.5 billion). The previous financials for the company, however, revealed a profit of 29.1 billion yen during the same period in 2015.
Though Tomoaki Kawasaki, an analyst at Iwai Cosmo Securities Co. noted that operating profit for the quarter came in at 32.3 billion yen, slightly below the average projection. Commenting on the matter, he stated,
The operating profit being weaker than expected definitely leaves a negative impression. But if that is because of the Animal Crossing delay, then it simply means that game’s earnings will hit during the next fiscal year and isn’t too big of a worry.
After releasing the massive uptick in profits, Kyoto-based Nintendo raised its full-year profit forecast to 90 billion yen ($792 million). The company has, however, earned a profit of only 50 billion yen ($440 million). The surge in expected revenue marks a 5-fold enhancement for Nintendo than the past fiscal year.
The company expects such a massive out-turn from its recently released Super Mario Run for iOS platform (which has received a lukewarm response). The game has already crossed over 50 million downloads and might witness more downloads with its upcoming Android release. Though, it is yet to detail the earnings of the game which is currently live only in iOS.
Moreover, the company has tied up hopes with its overseas hardware sales business including the Nintendo 3DS sales that came in at 6.45 million, up 10 by percent with each passing year. Nintendo has currently sold numerous titles and has gained a 20% jump hitting 46.78 million. Further, Nintendo is all set to release its next flagship console known as Nintendo Switch. Speaking on the same, Nintendo’s president Tatsumi Kimishima said,
You can tell customers have huge expectations based on how Switch reservations are doing,We want to increase production as much as we can.
The inclination in the profits for the company hassles it out from its slumping revenues (by 22 percent year-on-year). We are yet to see if the company holds up to its expectations of doubled revenues, due in May. The impending launch of the hybrid console ‘Switch’ is expected to add to the glorious earnings figures being publicised by the company.
