Nintendo\u2019s shares fell seven per cent in Tokyo on Monday after the company hiked \u200cSwitch 2 prices and as the market frets over a lack of high-profile games to build momentum.<\/p>\n
Nintendo posted robust hardware sales for the financial year ended March but, while the company is known for its conservative forecasts, its outlook for this \u200byear underwhelmed the market.<\/p>\n
The Kyoto-based firm extended the life of the original Switch with games from \u200bfranchises such as \u201cThe Legend of Zelda\u201d and, while it has scored hits such as \u201cPok\u00e9mon \u2060Pokopia\u201d, it is seen as lacking potential blockbusters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe year-on-year decline in game shipment guidance risks signaling that Nintendo \u200blacks confidence in its pipeline,\u201d Morningstar analyst Kazunori Ito wrote in a note.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, as user engagement typically accelerates \u200bin the second year of a console cycle, we view this as too pessimistic,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Nintendo also said it would raise prices of its Switch 2, with the Japanese language Switch 2 Japan model to go up by 10,000 yen (US$63.73) to \u200b59,980 yen from May 25 and prices in markets such as the U.S. to rise from September 1.<\/p>\n
The \u200bcompany has an audience among casual gamers who are seen as particularly sensitive to price hikes, which come as electronics \u200cmakers \u2060grapple with a memory chip price surge.<\/p>\n
The second year \u201cis crucial and our non-consensus view is that it will release a Mario AAA game this year,\u201d Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal wrote in a note.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe… guidance bar is low by design \u2014 Nintendo has beaten initial (operating profit) guidance in each of the past four fiscal years,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Unlike \u200bmore diversified peer Sony, \u200bNintendo remains highly dependent \u2060on its core gaming business even as its characters and intellectual property prove popular in movies and at theme parks.<\/p>\n
With the PlayStation 5 having spent longer on the \u200bmarket, \u201cSony is in a much better position to pass higher costs of memory \u200bchips to consumers,\u201d \u2060Amir Anvarzadeh of Asymmetric Advisors wrote in a note.<\/p>\n
Sony, whose shares were up 10% in Tokyo on Monday, forecast lower sales but higher profit at its gaming business. The company also said it was planning a new joint \u2060venture \u200bto develop and manufacture image sensors in Japan with TSMC (2330.TW), opens new tab<\/a> as \u200bit seeks to control costs.<\/p>\n \u201cThese results were at least validating of the thesis that Sony can protect group profits by scaling back PS5 \u200bshipments,\u201d Bernstein analyst David Dai wrote in a note.<\/p>\n Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Sam Holmes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nintendo\u2019s shares fell seven per cent in Tokyo on Monday after the company hiked \u200cSwitch 2 prices and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[712,49,48,61],"class_list":["post-662280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}