Nintendo reports trailing profit as sales of aging Switch game console slide

abcnews.go.com:

Japanese video game maker Nintendo has reported a 55% drop in its profit in the April-June quarter as sales slipped in both machines and game software

TOKYO — Japanese video game maker Nintendo reported Friday a 55% drop in profit in the April-June quarter as sales slipped in both machines and game software compared to last year.

Game machine sales tend to trail off after they hit the market. The Nintendo Switch is in its eighth year after sales began, with more than 140 million already sold.

Profit at Nintendo Co., owner of the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises, totaled 80.95 billion yen ($543 million) in the last quarter, down from 181 billion yen a year earlier. Quarterly sales declined 46.5% to 246.6 billion yen ($1.7 billion).

Nintendo did not release any new information about a promised Switch successor. Earlier this year, its president, Shuntaro Furukawa, said an announcement will be made before April 2025.

There's an estimated 128 million Switch players around the world. Quarterly sales of the Switch machine for the latest period fell 46% year-on-year to 2.1 million machines from 3.9 million.

Software sales declined 41%, despite million-seller games including a take on the Super Mario series called “Paper Mario,” and a new Luigi game.

Nintendo said the declines in sales and profit reflected especially strong results last year, when they got a powerful boost from a Super Mario Brothers movie. Nintendo stressed that its recent profits and sales, which were in line with analysts' forecasts, were comparable to what it racked up January-March.

Another Super Mario film is promised for 2026, as Nintendo leans on its prized intellectual property to keep its business rolling.

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