Sony isn’t the only one making an announcement. Nintendo announced its earnings for the third quarter, and it isn’t pleasant reading. The company’s results showed that its net profit for the nine months through December dropped 74 percent.
The company’s operating profit for Q3 sank 47 percent as it reported 104.6 billion yen (or US$1.3 billion), compared to the 192.3 billion yen same time last year. It failed to meet analysts expectations of 118 billion yen.
It appears that its profit loss happens to be due its decision to release its much touted Nintendo 3DS to March of this year, rather than the Holiday Shopping Season, as well as the Wii’s media hype has pretty much died down as Nintendo and Sony’s rivals to its motion controller appeared. A strong yen against the US dollar is also a factor.
The company has sold in the last nine months 13.72 million Wii consoles and 15.70 million DS units, both down from 17.05 and 23.35 million respectively. It has since lowered its forecasts to 16 million units for the Wii at the end of the fiscal year, and 18.5 million units of the Nintendo DS.
The Nintendo 3DS console is expected to be out in March for all Western customers, and on February 26 for those in Japan. It expects to sell 4 million units by the end of March, according to the Wall Street Journal.