[CHARTS] Dati di vendita Nintendo (Q1 FY 2005)

[Turrican3]

Ma la società mantiene inalterate le previsioni di crescita su base annua, e gli analisti confermano che non vi è nulla di preoccupante.

Fonte: reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nintendo Co. Ltd. reported a 78.5 percent decline in quarterly operating profit Thursday. Still, the company kept its forecast for a full-year profit increase of 3.1 percent.

Nintendo, known for software titles featuring such characters as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, is enjoying strong sales of its DS portable game machine, launched late last year, but sold 60 percent fewer GameCube consoles compared with a year earlier.

The company was also hurt during the quarter by a lack of new big software titles. Most of its widely anticipated games such as a new "Legend of Zelda" for GameCube and "Pokemon Diamond/Pearl" for DS in Japan are expected to launch in the second half.

"I think the results came in pretty much as expected," said Yuta Sakurai, senior analyst for Nomura Securities.

"This is a seasonally volatile industry and Nintendo's biggest games will come later in the year. They didn't change their full-year forecast, so I'm not worried," he said.

Nintendo's consolidated operating profit for the April-June first quarter fell to 3.75 billion yen ($33.35 million) from 17.47 billion yen a year earlier.

Last year's results were boosted by strong demand for GameBoy Advance software and GameCube consoles.

Total quarterly sales fell 14 percent to 70.7 billion yen.

"The difference in profitability from a year earlier is due to the fact that it hasn't been long since DS entered markets so costs are still high," said Yoshihiro Mori, senior managing director at Nintendo, adding that it usually takes about a year to benefit from mass production.

Nintendo, which dominates the portable game industry with a roughly 94 percent market share, said it sold 1.38 million DS games in the first quarter.

But rival Sony Corp. (Research) is threatening its grip with PlayStation Portable (PSP), which it launched in Japan in December and in the United States in March.

Sony raised its full year shipment target Thursday for the PSP to 13 million units from 12 million units. Nintendo expects to sell 12.4 million DS game machines in the current year.

Analysts believe Sony's PSP is selling slightly better than the DS in the United States, while DS sales are a little stronger in Japan.
Next generation

Nintendo's GameCube console has never sold well compared with the more popular PlayStation 2 made by Sony or the Xbox by Microsoft Corp. (Research). But Takashi Oya, senior analyst for Deutsche Securities, said the drop in its sales could be one indication of the end of current-generation consoles.

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are all expected to launch next-generation game consoles over the next 12 to 18 months.

Sony, which dominates the game console market, raised its PS2 shipment target for the year to 13 million from 12 million, but that is still a 19.6 percent drop from a year earlier.

Nintendo expects GameCube sales to fall 33.8 percent in the current year to 10.2 million units.

"It just shows that the market is finished with current-generation models," Oya said.

Nintendo might still see a small boost in GameCube sales in the latter half of the year, helped by the launches of the much-anticipated new "Legend of Zelda" and "Pokemon XD".

But its game titles are also facing stiff competition, particularly in the United States, from the likes of Electronic Arts Inc. (Research) (EA), Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. (Research) and Activision Inc.

EA, the world's biggest game publisher, reported a quarterly loss Tuesday on sluggish game sales and it cut its full-year forecast.

Nintendo said in May it expected its operating profit this business year to rise slightly to ¥115 billion from ¥111.52 billion last year.

Net profit for the first quarter fell to ¥14.12 billion yen ($125.6 million) from ¥22.64 billion a year earlier.

Shares in Nintendo fell 0.9 percent in the quarter, in line with the Nikkei average, while Sony fell 10.5 percent.

Nintendo shares closed down 0.1 percent at 12,010 yen Thursday ahead of its earnings announcement.

[.:|Physalis|:.]

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