Even Nintendo has been affected by the slowdown in gaming. The Kyoto, Japan-based company expects sales to fall 19.3% and earnings to fall 38.9% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025.
The Nintendo Switch 2 is likely slipping into the year. In the coming fiscal year, Nintendo expects to sell 13.5 million console units in the eight year for the Switch handheld hybrid game console.
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said on Twitter that the Switch 2 will be announced within the current fiscal year which ends on March 31, 2025.
The Japanese video game company said the weak outlook is based on slower sales of Switch consoles and software. Operating income in the coming year is expected to fall to $2.6 billion on $8.77 billion in sales. Those numbers fell short of analyst expectations.
Earlier this year, Nintendo told its partners that it was delaying the Switch 2 until March 2025 or later, Bloomberg said.
For the March quarter, Nintendo earned an operating profit of $418 million, below analyst expectations of $485 million. The company met expectations with 15.7 million Switch sales in the just-completed fiscal year ended March 31. Software is expected to drop from 200 million units to 165 million units. In its lifetime, the Switch has topped 140 million units sold.