TOKYO: Japanese video game giant Nintendo yesterday said it swung to a US$67 million net profit in the three months to June, owing to a jump in game 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 (US$66.96 million) net profit reversed a loss of ￥9.92 billion a year earlier.
It said it was still on track to book a net profit of ￥35 billion yen on sales of ￥570 billion in the year to March 2016.
Revenue in the latest quarter jumped 21 percent to ￥90.22 billion, as the company’s new line-up of 3DS portable consoles “continued to expand their sales,” it said in a statement.
“Foreign exchange gains totaling ￥10.8 billion due to depreciation of the yen” also contributed to the net profit, it said.
A weaker yen is a plus for Japanese exporters, as it makes them relatively more competitive overseas and inflates the value of repatriated overseas profits.
At the operating level, Nintendo returned to a ￥1.15 billion profit from a ￥9.47 billion loss a year earlier.
The loss of Iwata has raised questions about Nintendo’s future, as it faces stiff competition from Sony and Microsoft in game console sales, and as the trio battle the trend toward cheap or free downloadable games for smartphones and other mobile devices.
Iwata had argued that venturing into the overpopulated world of smartphones and tablets risked hollowing out the core business and cannibalizing the hard-fought value of their game creations.
However, he later acknowledged Nintendo had little choice but to move into new areas.
In March, Nintendo unveiled plans to buy a stake in Tokyo-based mobile gaming company DeNA as part of a deal to develop smartphone games based on Nintendo’s host of popular characters.
“The loss of Iwata is unlikely to affect Nintendo’s short-term performance, including its plan to launch mobile phone businesses with DeNA, as its short-term projects have already started,” said Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo.
