Nintendo cuts profit forecast by 33 per cent

Nintendo announced they are slashing their full year profits forecast by 33 percent. The move is baffling many analysts as Nintendo’s sales levels were some of the highest in the industry in 2008.

Nintendo itself says that that it expects to sell less of the companies popular WII gaming system than previously thought. “Today’s revision suggests that the roaring pace of Wii growth that we’ve seen until now may be over,” Hiroshi Kamide, a KBC Financial Products analyst, said.

The problem may be that there are less excitement inducing WII titles hitting the shelves than there were in the past.

The expected slowdown in the fourth quarter, which ends March 31st, will not stop the company from ending the year in the black. Third quarter sales were 21 percent higher than the last year though the fourth quarter profits are predicted to be some of the slimmest Nintendo has seen in three years.

Nintendo is the worlds largest maker of hand held gaming systems. While demand in the US and Europe for the WII seems insatiable, sales in Japan have slowed. The soaring yen is also cutting into Nintendo’s foreign profits. Last year, over ten million consoles were sold in the US alone.