Nintendo Reports $350 Million Profit, Reversal From Red Ink
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOKYO — Nintendo Co. reported a net profit of 41.8 billion yen ($350 million) for the fiscal year through March, a reversal from deep losses the previous year, as it reshapes its troubled business with a long-delayed foray into smartphone games and plans to bring its video game characters to theme parks.

The result from the Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario video games and the Wii home console was better than its own forecast for a 30 billion yen ($251 million) profit. It was in line with the forecast in a FactSet survey of analysts.

Nintendo, which did not break down quarterly figures, had a loss of 23.2 billion yen the previous fiscal year due to weak sales of its new Wii U machine.

The annual profit reported Thursday was the first for Nintendo since the fiscal year ended March 2011 and mainly due to the weak yen.

Nintendo did an about-face recently and said it’s entering smartphone games, a segment it brushed off for years as irrelevant, insisting on the appeal of its game machines.

It announced in March that it was entering an alliance with Japanese mobile game company DeNA Co. to develop games for mobile devices. And on Thursday, Nintendo said that it will bring its video game characters to life in Universal theme parks, but declined to give any details of what the attractions will be or which characters will be featured.

Universal Parks & Resorts, which is owned by cable company Comcast Corp., owns and operates several theme parks and resorts around the world.

The falloff in appetite for game machines in the past few years is partly because people are increasingly playing games or doing social media and other activities on smartphones. Nintendo has repeatedly had to lower prices on gadgets to woo buyers.

Nintendo pioneered game machines since the 1980s, developing one of the first machines on the market and the hit Game Boy handheld.

Its main rivals in the business are Sony Corp. with the PlayStation machines and Microsoft Corp. with the Xbox One machine. Both companies have done better in adapting to the era of online and mobile games.

Nintendo’s fortunes have gotten a perk from the yen’s weakness in the past year, which increases the value of overseas earnings. A strong yen had in the past battered Nintendo earnings.

The dollar was trading at about 120 yen this week, up from about 100 yen a year earlier.

Nintendo’s sales for the fiscal year dipped nearly 4 percent to 549.8 billion yen ($4.6 billion).

Nintendo is expecting profit for the fiscal year through March 2016 to climb to 35 billion yen ($293 million), up 16 percent from the fiscal year ended March this year, as Pokemon characters and Luigi the plumber start arriving on smartphones and tablets.

It did not give details, except to say: “A new source of revenue is expected from a gaming application for smart devices which will be released this year.”

Annual sales are projected to rise nearly 4 percent to 570 billion yen ($4.8 billion).

Nintendo is expecting to sell 3.4 million Wii U machines for the fiscal year through March 2016, more than the 3.38 million sold for the fiscal year just ended.

兩補藥見效…任天堂去年轉盈

受惠於日圓貶值與Wii U遊戲機銷售暢旺，日本遊戲大廠任天堂（Nintendo）去年度出現四年來首見的全年獲利，今年度的營業利益預估更將倍增。

任天堂表示，截至3月底止的去年度淨利為418億日圓（3.5億美元），扭轉一年前的淨損232億日圓頹勢。營收則是因為3DS掌上遊戲機的銷售不佳，下滑3.8%至5,498億日圓（46億美元）。

任天堂說，去年度營利為248億日圓（約2.07億美元）。Wii U 遊戲機銷售則成長約24%至約340萬台。

任天堂預期，今年度淨利將降至350億日圓，但營利將倍增至500億日圓（4.18億美元），高於分析師預期的327億日圓。任天堂在抗拒多年後，終於打算跨足智慧手機遊戲市場，以抵銷部分遊戲機需求日漸疲軟的困境。

任天堂預計，今年將推出為智慧裝置打造的遊戲應用程式（App），預料今年度開始成為新的營收來源。東京Ace經濟研究所的分析師安田秀樹說，任天堂財報數據強勁，但光靠核心業務仍不足以帶動獲利大幅成長，代表該公司正依賴來自智慧手機業務的貢獻。

SMBC日興證券分析師前田榮二預估，智慧手機遊戲業務今年度可望為任天堂賺進約60億日圓的獲利，明年度再帶入多達600億日圓的獲利。

任天堂自從宣布進軍行動遊戲產業之後，股價已漲40%。

任天堂也表示，已同意與和美國環球主題樂園及度假村集團（Universal Parks & Resorts，全球環球影城的營運商）合作，推出以任天堂遊戲角色為主的景點。雖然任天堂還沒宣布推出這個景點的時間和地點，但不太可能專為任天堂遊戲角色新開設主題樂園，而是可能在全球的環球影城主題樂園內新設景點。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/05/07/business/ap-as-japan-earns-nintendo.html

2015-05-08．經濟日報．A8．國際．編譯劉品佳