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Nintendo reported a surge in revenue and operating profit for the June quarter boosted by the success of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” and the the popularity of its latest Zelda game for the Switch console.
Here’s how Nintendo did in its fiscal first quarter versus Refinitiv estimates:
- Revenue: 461.34 billion yen ($3.2 billion) versus 395.40 billion yen expected.
- Net profit: 181.02 billion yen versus 109.91 billion yen expected.
Nintendo’s revenue 50% from a year ago while net profit surged by 52%. Operating profit came in at 185.44 billion yen, ahead of expectations, jumping 82.4% year-on-year.
Prior to the fiscal first quarter, Nintendo had seen two straight quarters of revenue and
Nintendo saw a boost from the “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” based on the company’s best-known characters, which has generated more than $1 billion at the box office since its April release. The film was produced by Universal Studios.
The Japanese gaming giant also released a highly-anticipated game called “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” in May, which it said was the fastest selling title in the history of the series.
“In the first quarter of this fiscal year, both sales and profits were notably large for a first quarter mainly due to the concurrent releases of ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’, and we made steady progress toward our full-year earnings forecast,” Nintendo said in an earnings release.
Nintendo previously forecasted its revenue for the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2024, at 1.45 trillion yen and 340 billion yen of profit.
Nintendo also previously forecast sales of 15 million units of its flagships Switch games console series for its current fiscal year ending March 2024. That compares with just under 18 million units sold in the previous fiscal year.
The company said that it sold 3.91 million Switch consoles in the June quarter, up by 13.9% on the year.
The Switch is now a more than six-year old console, with investors fearing sales may have peaked — but the rise in sales may help to allay some of those concerns.
Over the life of the gear, Nintendo has tried to refresh the console with a handheld version and with one with an improved screen.
Analyst at Jefferies said in a note in April that the company will likely release a refreshed version of the Switch in this current fiscal year, or the next such period, which starts in April 2024. But the timing will depend on how well Nintendo’s overall financial performance is, and whether the company will need a new Switch to help boost sales over this year or the next.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.