Nintendo slashed its earnings forecast by more than half Wednesday after announcing that its 3DS game machine, packed with glasses-free 3-D technology, won't be ready to go on sale for Christmas.
The company cut its net profit outlook to ¥90 billion (US$1.1 billion) and said it expects net sales to be 21 percent lower than originally forecast at ¥1.1 trillion.
The revised figures represent big drops on the results it achieved in the prior financial year. For that period it achieved a net profit of ¥229 billion and net sales of ¥1.4 trillion.
Nintendo said the strong yen, which reduces profits from overseas sales when brought back to Japan, and the timing of the 3DS launch were behind its decision to lower projections for the fiscal year.
For the year through March 2011, Nintendo expects to sell 23.5 million DS machines, including 4 million 3DS, down from its earlier forecast for 30 million. It sold 27 million DS machines the previous fiscal year.
Nintendo set its previous targets based on an exchange rate of ¥95 to the U.S. dollar, but on Wednesday the yen was trading at around ¥84 to the dollar.
Industry figures speculated that the 3DS would be launched in November, but Nintendo said it will go on sale in Japan on February 26 and in Europe, Australia and the U.S. in March. Nintendo's financial year ends on the last day of March.
Nintendo said it hopes to sell 4 million of the new handheld along with 15 million software titles in the roughly one month between its launch and the end of March.
