Its diminutive Italian plumber Mario may be smashing cinema box office records across the globe but with the current iteration of the flagship Switch console getting a little long in the tooth, Nintendo is seeing pressure on its revenue and profit.
At least the drop-off was a little better than the company had forecast and it will hope the success of the movie – effectively a 90-minute advert for the company’s biggest brand – can, along with a rumoured Switch 2, help revive its fortunes.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould said: “No release date for the new console has yet been announced but the markets will be alive to any hints about new hardware.
“Nintendo’s integrated model, with its games pretty much exclusively made to be played on its own consoles, increases the stakes here.
“The larger danger for Nintendo is that people are less willing or able to spend on games given cost-of-living pressures.
“There was little evidence of any drop off in gaming spend in Sony’s latest numbers as it reported a record profit for the twelve months to 31 March. The Playstation 5 is only two years old and its sales are also hitting all-time highs.
“Nintendo’s more family-orientated product may have left it more exposed to tight household budgets, while Sony benefits from a young adult audience which might have more disposable income.”
