TOKYO — Nintendo expects its net profit for the year ending March 2022 to decline 29% to 340 billion yen ($3.1 billion), the Japanese gaming giant said Thursday.
The company’s revenue is forecast to fall 9% to 1.6 trillion yen and its annual operating profit to slide 22% to 500 billion yen compared with the previous year, which saw unprecedented demand for gaming early on in the coronavirus pandemic.
Nintendo expects sales from its popular Switch gaming console to slow. It aims to sell 25.5 million units this fiscal year, down 11.5% from a year earlier.
Blockbuster sales from its global hit title Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was released in March 2020, also set the bar high for this fiscal year. Nintendo expects total software sales to decline versus last year.
For the year through March, Nintendo posted an 86% jump in net profit to 480 billion yen, a record, while revenue rose 34% to 1.76 trillion yen. Its operating profit climbed 82% to 641 billion yen, as pandemic-driven demand for its Switch console lifted earnings.
