Nintendo hit with colder fiscal year on lagging hardware, software sales

Nintendo's latest financial report for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2010 confirms expectations from analysts and pundits alike; the company was hit with its first dip in annual profit in six years.  Revenue fell to ¥1.43 trillion ($15.2 billion USD) compared to the ¥1.84 trillion the company managed to secure the year before.  This impacted annual net income, which amounted to ¥228.6 billion ($2.44 billion USD), an 18 percent drop from the ¥279 billion ($2.98 billion USD) reported the fiscal year before.  The company explains business performance was "negatively impacted by a price reduction on Wii hardware, fewer strong Wii software titles in the first half and appreciation of the yen".

Annual Wii sales dipped to 20.53 million units from 25.6 million the fiscal year before.  Lifetime-to-date sales for the console have now reached just over 70 million units since it first launched back in 2006, which according to Nintendo itself represents the "largest cumulative unit sales performance for console hardware in our company's history".

DS hardware sales for the twelve month period ending March 31st hit 27.11 million units, representing another year-on-year decline; the new DSi XL accounted for just 2.08 million of annual DS sales, while the slightly older DSi laid claim to a much larger portion with 17.82 million units to its name.  Lifetime sales for the entire DS productline currently stand at nearly 129 million units.

On the software side of the equation, 191.8 million Wii titles were sold this past fiscal year.  Wii software sales now total 544.83 million units since the launch of the Wii console itself.  Nintendo notes the number of Wii games that reached million-sellers status increased from 54 to 79 different titles, including those from third party developers.  Annual DS software sales reached 151.5 million units, and lifetime-to-date sales of DS games now sit at 718.5 million units.

Nintendo is expecting its current fiscal year (which ends March 2011) will see further drop in profit.  The company is currently forecasting a net income of ¥200 billion on revenue of ¥1.4 trillion.  Annual software sales for both the DS and Wii platforms are expected to take another dive to 150 million and 165 million units, respectively.  Nintendo also predicts Wii hardware sales will dip to 18 million units this year.  On the bright side, the company is betting on an increase in DS hardware sales to 30 million units, amidst the upcoming hype for the new 3DS handheld.