任天堂營業額減少

Recently the Yomiuri News reported the following:

任天堂が３０日発表した２００９年４～６月期連結決算は、売上高が前年期比４０．１％減の２５３４億円、引き後利益が６０．６％減の４２３億円と大幅な減收減益となった。０９年３月期には、家庭用ゲーム機「Wii（ウィー）」の好調で最高益を記錄したが、４～６月は「Wii」の世界販売る台数が前年同期比で５７％減り、好調ぶりに陰りが出てきたようだ。任天堂は、ソフト「Wiiスポーツリゾート」の国内発売が６月末、海外発売が７月にずれ込んだ影響だとしている。携帯ゲーム機「ニンテンドーDS」の販売台数も１４％減の５９７万台だった。一方、１０年３月期については売上高が１兆８０００億円、税引き後利益が過去最高の３０００億円とする業績予想を据え置いた。

In the April-June financial statement released by Nintendo, sales compared with the same period last year saw a huge drop of 40.1% to 2,534 billion yen, or a drop of 60.6% to 423 billion yen in profit after tax. Although in the first three-month period in 2009, the sales of family game Wii had registered good sales, in April-June the Wii sales in the world had dropped 57% when compared with same period last year. The time gap for Nintendo to launch its software "Wii Sports Resort" in late June in the country and started its sales in July overseas had an impact. Mobile game machine "Nintendo-DS" also registered a drop of 14% at 5.97 million numbers in sales. Separately, there was no change in the forecast for the first three-month sales in 2010 of 1.8 trillion yen, and a record high after tax income of 3,000 billion yen.

My feeling is that could Nintendo's drop in sales also due to the global weak economy. Consumers in Japan and overseas may be more prudent in spending their money on entertainment in view of the uncertain world-wide financial outlook.