Nintendo suffers sales slump

Though it was the star festive performer of 2009, platform holder Nintendo has reported a drop in both sales and profits for the nine months ending December 31st.

Profits were down 9.4 per cent at YEN 192.6bn (1.3bn), down from YEN 212.5bn (1.4bn) in the same period the year before. Operating profit suffered a deeper slump, falling 40.8 per cent to YEN 296.6bn (2bn).

Net sales hit YEN 1.18trillion – 23 per cent down on 2008’s YEN 1.54tn.

Throughout the period the company sold 17.05m Wii consoles, while DS unit sales reached 23.35m across its various SKUs. Individual software unit sales reached 157m.

Nintendo blamed slow sales in the first half of the year, though it’s strong third quarter performance was up year-on-year in many respects.