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.



Volkswagen Workers to Go on Warning Strikes Across Germany

The Volkswagen logo is displayed on the Volkswagen power plant on the day when Volkswagen AG and the industrial union IG Metall started talks over a new labor agreement for six of its German plants, in Wolfsburg, Germany, September 25, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo
The Volkswagen logo is displayed on the Volkswagen power plant on the day when Volkswagen AG and the industrial union IG Metall started talks over a new labor agreement for six of its German plants, in Wolfsburg, Germany, September 25, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo
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Volkswagen Workers to Go on Warning Strikes Across Germany

The Volkswagen logo is displayed on the Volkswagen power plant on the day when Volkswagen AG and the industrial union IG Metall started talks over a new labor agreement for six of its German plants, in Wolfsburg, Germany, September 25, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo
The Volkswagen logo is displayed on the Volkswagen power plant on the day when Volkswagen AG and the industrial union IG Metall started talks over a new labor agreement for six of its German plants, in Wolfsburg, Germany, September 25, 2024. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse/File Photo

Volkswagen workers will go on warning strikes on Monday at plants across Germany, labor union IG Metall said, marking the first large-scale walkouts at Volkswagen's domestic operations since 2018.

The start of the strikes represents a further escalation of a dispute between Europe's top carmaker and its workers over mass layoffs, pay cuts and possible plant closures - drastic measures the company says it cannot rule out in the face of Chinese competition and cooling consumer demand.

Labor representatives at VW had on Nov. 22 voted for limited strikes at German operations from early December after talks over wages and plant closures failed to achieve a breakthrough, Reuters reported.

"If necessary, this will be the toughest collective bargaining battle Volkswagen has ever seen," IG Metall negotiator Thorsten Groeger said in a statement.

The carmaker said it continues to rely on constructive dialogue to find a sustainable solution.

"Volkswagen respects the right of employees to take part in a warning strike," a spokesperson said in reply to the union's announcement, adding that the company had taken steps in advance to ensure a basic level of supplies to customers and minimise the impact of the strike.

Warning strikes in Germany usually last from a few hours.

The union had last week proposed measures it said would save 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion), including forgoing bonuses for 2025 and 2026, which Europe's top carmaker dismissed.

Volkswagen has demanded a 10% wage cut, arguing it needs to slash costs and boost profit to defend market share in the face of cheap competition from China and a drop in European car demand.

The company is threatening to close plants in Germany for the first time in its 87-year history.

"Volkswagen has set fire to our collective agreements and instead of extinguishing this fire in three collective bargaining sessions, the management board is throwing open barrels of petrol into it," Groeger said.

An agreement not to stage walkouts had ended on Saturday, IG Metall said, enabling workers to carry out warning strikes from Sunday across VW AG's German plants.

"Warning strikes will start at all plants from Monday. How long and how intensive this confrontation needs to be is Volkswagen's responsibility at the negotiating table," Groeger said.

Labor representatives and management will meet again on Dec. 9 to carry on negotiations over a new labor agreement for workers at the German business - VW AG - with unions vowing to resist any proposals that do not provide a long-term plan for every VW plant.