Nintendo today cut its profit forecast by half for their current fiscal year, ending March 31, 2011.
The announcement came on the same day Nintendo announced pricing on the forthcoming 3DS handheld. The company previously projected a net income of $2.39 billion, but now expects to bring in about $1.08 billion.
Nintendo claims the accounting change is due to strong yen appreciation, current sales, the sales outlook for the 2010 holiday as well as the “3DS release environment.” Despite lowering overall handheld hardware and software sales for the fiscal year, Nintendo announced they expects to ship 4 million 3DS units by March 2011, along with 15 million games.
The shift in profit outlooks might also be because people who’ve already bought the same console four times probably don’t want to but it a fifth, even if the 3D technology on it is outstanding. Another factor could be Wii sales dropping off a cliff.
