Pokemon, Smash Bros and Mario Kart fire Nintendo back to profit, but 3DS sales slow

Nintendo posted a huge increase in profits and raised its earnings forecast, but cheap yen is masking weak sales.

Nintendo profits for the nine months ending December 2014 hit 59.52 billion yen (£332.6m), which is up almost six fold on the year before. This is primarily down to the launch of hit 3DS products such as Super Smash Bros and Pokemon, whereas Smash Bros and Mario Kart 8 were big sellers on Wii U.
However, 3DS sales faltered somewhat as the console begins to reach saturation point (it will be four years old in March).
The firm also revised its forecast, and it’s mixed news for the business. The firm expects net sales to fall by 40m yen, while operating income will half. That would be a reason to worry, however, a favourable exchange rate means that the firm will actually post a bigger profit than expected. 70 per cent of Nintendo’s business takes place outside of Japan, so a weak Yen can make a serious difference to its bottom line, as proven this year.
So how did Nintendo’s products perform? Well top of the pile is Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, which sold a huge 9.35m units, followed by Super Smash Bros which shifted 6.19m units. In total, 53m 3DS games were sold last year.
The No.1 game on Wii U was Mario Kart 8 with 4.77m sales, followed by Smash Bros once again with 3.39m units sold.
3DS continues to sell huge numbers in Japan, boosted this financial year by the arrival of New 3DS and New 3DS XL. However, 3DS saw a significant decrease in sales across Europe and US and as a result the number of 3DS’ sold during the nine month period was 7.08m, a drop on 11.65m posted a year previous.
The New 3DS launches in Europe and America next month.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/pokem...s-slow/0144428