Nintendo reports weak financial results

If it’s a contest, Sony is kicking Nintendo’s butt. Nintendo has announced that net profits are down 21 percent in the first half of their fiscal year. They still made $308 million, so it isn’t time to take up a collection for them yet, but it is reason for concern. That concern is multiplied by the fact that sales fell 6.3 percent in the period.

Nintendo blames the dismal results on weakness in sales of both game consoles and software. Gamecube sales are suffering, but the biggest hit is to Gameboy sales. Gameboy sales are 6.48 million in the first half. That is a huge drop from last year’s total of 13.26 million. Even the introduction of the Nintendo DS late last year hasn’t slowed down the decline. Sales of Gameboy software was also off by 27 percent year over year.

The company has to be banking on the Revolution system due out next year to compete against the Xbox 360 and Playstation3, they hope this system will reverse the disturbing financial trend.