Nintendo Expects Fall In Fy 2026 Net Profit On Slower Switch Sales

OSAKA, May 8 (Bernama-Kyodo) -- Nintendo Co. is expecting its net profit for the current fiscal year through next March to fall 26.9 per cent from a year earlier to 310 billion yen (US$2 billion), partly due to slower sales of Switch 2 gaming consoles following a planned price hike, Kyodo News reported.

The estimate comes after the gaming giant booked record-high sales of 2.31 trillion yen for the year ended March, surging 98.6 per cent from a year earlier thanks to the popularity of the console launched in June last year, its first new gaming device in more than eight years.

The company also announced Friday plans to raise the retail price of the Switch 2 in Japan by 10,000 yen to 59,980 yen from May 25, citing surging costs for raw materials and memory chips.

Starting Sept 1, the price of the console sold in the United States will also be raised to US$499.99 from US$449.99, and that in Europe to 499.99 euros from 469.99 euros, it said.

Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said that, along with higher materials costs, the company expects elevated crude oil prices due to the Middle East conflict to increase production costs in the medium and long term.

"We thought that shouldering rises in costs by our company for a long period would make our businesses difficult," Furukawa told an online press conference.

The company sold 19.86 million Switch 2 units in the just-ended business year. For fiscal 2026, it expects sales to fall to around 16.5 million units.

For the current business year, operating profit is estimated to rise 2.7 per cent to 370 billion yen, while sales are expected to drop 11.4 per cent to 2.05 trillion yen.

In the year ended March, the Kyoto-based company booked a net profit of 424.06 billion yen, up 52.1 per cent from a year earlier. Operating profit rose 27.5 per cent to 360.12 billion yen.

-- BERNAMA-KYODO