Nintendo Cuts Annual Profit Forecast 10% as Switch Sales Slow

A staff member sorts products at the Nintendo store in Shibuya district in Tokyo November 5, 2024. (AFP)
A staff member sorts products at the Nintendo store in Shibuya district in Tokyo November 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Nintendo Cuts Annual Profit Forecast 10% as Switch Sales Slow

A staff member sorts products at the Nintendo store in Shibuya district in Tokyo November 5, 2024. (AFP)
A staff member sorts products at the Nintendo store in Shibuya district in Tokyo November 5, 2024. (AFP)

Nintendo cut on Tuesday its operating profit forecast for the year to March 2025 by 10% to 360 billion yen ($2.36 billion), as its ageing Switch console loses steam.

The latest forecast is below analyst estimates of a 391.4 billion yen profit.

The Kyoto-based gaming company sold 4.7 million Switch consoles in the first half of the financial year. That compares with 6.8 million units sold in the same period a year earlier.

Nintendo lowered its full-year sales forecast for the console, which is in its eighth year on the market, by 7% to 12.5 million units. That would be down 20% from actual Switch sales of 15.7 million units a year earlier.

It also revised down its annual software sales forecast by 3% to 160 million units.

"For a platform that is in its 8th year in the market, both hardware and software enjoy stable demand and brisk sales," Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told an online press conference.

"But sales so far fell short of our original projections. Taking into consideration their sales in the first half, we revised our forecasts for both hardware and software, and that led to the earnings revision."

Furukawa said there was no change to Nintendo's plan to announce a successor to its long-lasting Switch console in the current financial year, but did not go into specifics.

Shares in Nintendo closed down 3.9% ahead of the earnings announcements, underperforming the Nikkei average's 1.1% gain.



South Korea Fines Meta about $15 Mln over Collection of User Data

A 3D printed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta is placed on laptop keyboard in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021. (Reuters)
A 3D printed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta is placed on laptop keyboard in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021. (Reuters)
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South Korea Fines Meta about $15 Mln over Collection of User Data

A 3D printed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta is placed on laptop keyboard in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021. (Reuters)
A 3D printed Facebook's new rebrand logo Meta is placed on laptop keyboard in this illustration taken on November 2, 2021. (Reuters)

South Korea has ordered Facebook owner Meta Platforms to pay 21.62 billion won ($15.67 million) in fines after finding it had collected sensitive user data and given it to advertisers without a legal basis, Seoul's data protection agency said.

The US tech giant obtained information from about 980,000 South Korean Facebook users on issues such as their religion, political views and sexuality while failing to seek agreement from users, the Personal Information Protection Commission said in a statement on Tuesday.

The information was then used by some 4,000 advertisers, the agency said.

A Meta Korea official declined to comment.

"Specifically, it has been found that (Meta) analyzed user behavior data such as pages they liked and advertisements they clicked on Facebook and created and managed advertising themes related to sensitive information," the commission said.

This included users being categorized for example as being North Korean defectors or following a certain religion, the agency said.

Meta had also unfairly declined a request by users to access personal information and failed to prevent data on about 10 South Koreans from being leaked by hackers, the agency said.