Nintendo's plunge in Tokyo after below-expected accounts and low estimates
Management's forecast of a 27% drop in net profit and an 11.4% drop in sales for the current fiscal year weighed on the stock's performance
by Laura Bonadies
(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor)- Nintendo thudded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange with the Nikkei index closing trading down half a percentage point (-0.47%). The Japanese video game giant's shares instead ended down 8.44% after it announced lower-than-expected results on Friday - with markets now closed - and predicted a drop in net profit and sales for 2025-26.
In detail for the 2024-2025 financial year, which ended at the end of March, Nintendo saw a net profit of ¥424 billion (EUR 2.3 billion) and record sales of ¥2,313 billion (+98.6%), results that nevertheless disappointed market expectations.
Management's forecast of a 27% drop in net profit and an 11.4% drop in sales for the current fiscal year weighed on the stock's performance. In the last financial year, the company had been able to count on the surprise success of the life simulation game Pokemon Pokopia, which sold over 2.2 million copies in just four days after its launch in early March. Positive news also for the cinematic success of the animated film Super Mario Galaxy, released in April.
Nintendo's momentum remains fragile, however, mainly due to the soaring price of components, which has forced the company to hike the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 console launched in June 2025. Generally speaking, the profitability of console manufacturers is being put under pressure this year by the rising cost of memory chips, against the backdrop of demand fuelled by the boom in artificial intelligence. Further complicating the picture are tensions in the Middle East, which have driven up global shipping costs and the price of basic raw materials such as plastics.
