TOKYO (AP) – “Pokemon Go” is giving only a modest boost to Japanese video game maker Nintendo, which has slashed its operating profit and sales forecasts for this fiscal year citing lagging demand for game consoles like the Wii U.
The Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario games said Wednesday that its net profit in April-September was 38.3 billion yen ($368 million), up 234 percent from the same period the year before. That was mainly due to a 62.7 billion yen ($601.7 million) gain from its sale of the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team.
Nintendo said it expects its net profit for the year that ends March 31, 2017, to overshoot its earlier estimate thanks to that windfall.
Nintendo’s earnings have suffered from disappointing sales of the Wii U and the 3DS handheld.
The company said a strengthening of the Japanese yen contributed to an operating loss of 5.9 billion yen ($57 million) in April-September, compared with an operating profit of about 9 billion yen a year earlier. It cut its full-year operating profit forecast to 30 billion yen ($288 million) from 45 billion yen.