Nintendo Earnings, Switch Sales Hit Roadblock

Nintendo’s pandemic hot streak may finally be over.

The video game developer reported its first-quarter results Thursday, recording a 17.3% decrease in operating profit to $1.09 billion, and a 9.9% decrease in revenue to $2.94 billion.

Sales of the Switch console declined 22% year-over-year, which Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa attributes to the global microchip shortage.

• The flagship Switch — retailing at $299 — saw an 8% increase in sales.
• But sales of the Switch Lite — retailing at $199 — “more than halved.”
• Nintendo sold a total 4.45 million Switch consoles during the quarter.

Overall, Nintendo has sold 89 million Switches since the console was released five years ago.

With the exclusion of “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” — which accounted for 40% of Nintendo’s first-party game sales last year — software sales exceeded last year’s fiscal Q1. “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” sales hit 37 million.

Nintendo plans to spend around $910 million buy back up to 1.51% of its shares. Last month, the company announced that a new OLED Switch will be released in October for $349.