Nintendo's profit surges on Switch, software sales

Nintendo Co recorded a 34 percent profit surge in the first half of the fiscal year on strong sales of its Switch console.

That prompted the Japanese video game maker to raise its profit forecast for the April-March fiscal year from an earlier projection of 340 billion yen to 400 billion yen.

Nintendo earned 477.7 billion yen in the last fiscal year.

The boost that entertainment firms got from the pandemic because people tended to stay home more, which is likely to wear off as coronavirus restrictions ease.

Nintendo, like other Japanese exporters, is getting a boost from a weaker yen, which lifts the value of their overseas earnings when translated into yen.

Net profit at Kyoto-based Nintendo totaled 230.45 billion yen during the six months through September, up from 171.8 billion yen the previous year.

First-half sales totaled 656.97 billion yen, up 5% from 624.3 billion yen.

According to Nintendo, lockdowns connected to COVID-19 and other disruptions hindered production because of shortages of computer chips and other components. To 6.68 million units, Nintendo Switch sales decreased 19% over the prior year.

Nintendo also published "Nintendo Switch Sports," which sold 6.15 million units, and "Mario Strikers: Battle League," which sold 2.17 million copies, during the previous six months.

The earlier-released Mario Kart and Kirby games, as well as products from other publishers, all saw strong sales, resulting in 15 million-seller games for the Switch over six months.

Nintendo’s software sales grew by 1.6 percent year-on-year to 95.41 million units. Downloadable online games also did well, it said.