Nintendo swings to profit in April-June, sales up 21%

[TOKYO] Japanese video game giant Nintendo said Wednesday it swung to a US$67 million net profit in the three months to June, owing to a jump in console sales and a weaker yen.

The company, whose chief executive Satoru Iwata died of cancer at the age of 55 this month, said its 8.28 billion yen net profit reversed a loss of 9.92 billion yen a year earlier.

It said it was still on track to book a net profit of 35 billion yen on sales of 570 billion yen in the year to March 2016.

Revenue in the latest quarter jumped 21 per cent to 90.22 billion yen, as the company's new line-up of 3DS portable consoles "continued to expand their sales", it said in a statement.

At the operating level Nintendo returned to a 1.15 billion yen profit from a 9.47 billion yen loss a year earlier.

The loss of Mr Iwata has raised questions about Nintendo's future as it faces stiff competition from Sony and Microsoft in console sales, and as the trio battle the trend toward cheap - or sometimes free - downloadable games for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Nintendo's deceased chief had argued that venturing into the overpopulated world of smartphones and tablets risked hollowing out the core business and cannibalising the hard-fought value of their game creations.

Mr Iwata later acknowledged Nintendo had little choice but to move into new areas.

"The world is changing, so any company that is not coping with the change will fall into decline," he said.

AFP