Nintendo Financial Results – H1 2015-16

Today, Nintendo revealed its results for the first half of Fiscal Year 2015-16 (April 1st, 2015 / Septemer 31st, 2015), and good news: not only is the company still in the black, but its sales and Operating income are significantly up Year on Year. However, Ordinary income and Profit attributable to owners of parent are both down.

First, let’s start with some raw data:

• Net sales: 204,182 million Yen (1.532 billion € / 1.104 billion £ / 1.693 billion $), + 19.1% compared to the same period in 2014 (171,399 million Yen, -12.8% compared to the same period in 2013);
• Operating income: 8,977 million Yen (67 million € / 48 million £ / 74 million $), vs 215 million Yen in losses during the same period in 2014
• Ordinary income: 16,436 million Yen (123 million € / 89 million £ / 136 million $), -25.9% compared to the same period in 2014 (22,196 million Yen)
• Profit attributable to owners of parent: 11,466 million Yen (86 million € / 62 million £ / 95 million $), -19.8% compared to the same period in 2014 (14 300 million Yen)
• Digital sales: 21 billion Yen (157 million € / 113 £ / 174 million $), vs 10.7 billion during the same period in 2014.

This graph shows the geographical breakdown of sales. Both Japan and North America are slightly up Year on Year, and only Europe is down.

Hardware / Software Sales

• Nintendo 3DS: 1.27 million during Q2 2015-2016, 2.28 million during H1 2015-16
• Wii U: 720 000 during Q2 2015-16, 1.19 million during H1 2015-16
• Nintendo 3DS Software: 11.28 million during Q2 2015-16, 19.20 million during H1 2015-16 (23 million during H1 2014-15)
• Wii U Software: 7.82 million during Q2 2015-16, 12.37 million during H1 2015-16 (9.4 million during H1 2014-15)

Nintendo comments

Nintendo notes that during the first half of Fiscal Year 2015-16, sales of the Nintendo 3DS (and more precisely the New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL) continued to “expand”, partly due to new colour variations. In total, the handheld sold 2.28 million during the first half of the current Fiscal Year.

In Japan, several games sold pretty well during that period: Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (with 2.02 million units worldwide), Rhythm Tengoku (temp.), Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright/Conquest and Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon. Nintendo also mentions a third-party game which sold over 1 million units, but didn’t tell which one (it’s most likely Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate).

The company also mentions Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, which enjoyed steady sales during the first Half of the current Fiscal Year, especially in overseas market. Overall, 19.20 million games were sold during H2 2015-16 on Nintendo 3DS.

As for the Wii U, we have Super Mario Maker, off to a great start with over 1.88 million units in less than a month, worldwide. There’s also Splatoon with over 2.42 million units sold, which has significantly contributed to vitalising the Wii U platform according to Nintendo (this is especially true in Japan). 1.19 million Wii U consoles were sold during H1 2015-16, as well as 12.37 million games.

Of course, Nintendo didn’t forget amiibo, and especially not the first batch of amiibo cards: their sales are off to a great start, while those of figures have remained robust, maintaining momentum.

Forecast

Nintendo 3DS

For the rest of the year, Nintendo will count on the following titles:

• The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes (which came out last week)
• Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (out on November 20th in North America)
• Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros. (out on December 4th in Europe, and December 3rd in Japan)
• several “key titles” from third-party publishers

Wii U

On Wii U, Nintendo is going to focus on “maintaining the attention level” of Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, in order to “enhance sales towards the year-end sales season”.  The company will count on the following games:

• Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival (out this November, worldwide)
• Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (out this November in Europe and North America, later this year in Japan)
• Star Fox Zero (out in Q1 2016 in Europe and North America, this Spring in Japan)

Nintendo also mentions amiibo, with the release of the Animal Crossing line alongside Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival, and the second series of Animal Crossing amiibo cards. Finally, Nintendo reiterates that their first mobile application will be launched before the end of the year, with details to be revealed during tomorrow’s meeting with investors.

Source: Nintendo