Nintendo lowers its annual forecasts, after a 60% drop in net profit

Japanese Nintendo on Tuesday lowered some forecasts for its 2024/25 financial year after a fall in net profit of 59.9% in the first half, expecting even more difficult months than expected until the release of the successor to its Switch console . For the financial year ending at the end of March 2025, the group has revised downwards its objectives for operating profit, now expected to decline by 32%, and for sales (-23%). It still expects an annual net profit of 300 billion yen (1.8 billion euros), which would be a drop of 39% year-on-year.

The video game world – and investors – continue to watch for the slightest clues and rumors about the console that will succeed the Switch, Nintendo having only revealed last May that an announcement would be made on this subject by the end of next March. “It is difficult to determine precisely the timetable” of Nintendo regarding the successor to the Switch, commented Takeshi Koyama in a recent note from Mizuho Securities. The video game giant “focuses on sales of its current Switch console in 2024”and especially during the traditionally lucrative end-of-year holiday season, and news of the next console “could therefore arrive from mid-January”he added.

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Sales of consoles and games down

Several analysts also expect a launch between March and June 2025, which would allow Nintendo to raise the bar for the 2025/26 financial year which will begin on April 1. The Switch, released in March 2017 and sold more than 146 million copies, according to the latest figures from Nintendo, will then have already celebrated its eight candles, far exceeding in longevity the brand’s previous consoles.

Recognizing sales of consoles (-31% year-on-year) and games (-27.6%) “lower than initial expectations” in the first half (April-September), the Kyoto-based firm also lowered its Switch sales target for the entire financial year on Tuesday: to 12.5 million units, compared to 13.5 million until then . While waiting for the next generation, it hopes to slow down the inevitable decline in its sales with regular releases of new games from its historic series, such as «The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom» «Super Mario Party Jamboree» in recent weeks, or «Mario & Luigi: L’Epopée fraternelle»which is due to go on sale Thursday.