Nintendo to Report First-Ever Annual Loss

NEW YORK - Video game company Nintendo Co. said Thursday that it expects to report its first-ever annual loss for the current fiscal year.

The Japanese company and creator of the Super Mario Bros. gaming franchise slashed its full fiscal year earnings forecast for the second time citing a rise in the yen that was "beyond expectation level," as well as weaker-than-expected sales of Nintendo DS hardware and Nintendo 3DS gaming software.

Nintendo's 3DS handheld games device, launched this year, wasn't the hoped-for hit, leading to price cuts and lower earnings expectations.

Nintendo now projects an annual loss of 20 billion yen and a full-year profit from operations of 1 billion yen, down 99.4 percent from the year-ago period. The company also sees full fiscal year revenue of 790 billion yen, down 22 percent.

The firm's previous forecast from late July had called for a fiscal year profit of 20 billion yen, 35 billion in operating profit and 900 billion yen in revenue.
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For the six months ended Sept. 30, Nintendo on Thursday reported a 41 percent decline in revenue to 215.7 billion yen and a loss of 70.3 billion yen, a multiple of the year-ago loss of 2.0 billion.

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com

Twitter: @georgszalai