Nintendo unexpectedly lowers profit forecast by 33 percent

In a move that has shocked investors and industry analysts, Nintendo has adjusted its expected net down from ¥345bn to ¥230bn, a drop of more than a billion dollars. Do they know something we don’t?

Nintendo, for all appearances, had a bumper year. Those famous November sales numbers implied that the Wii was as strong a seller this year as it was last year. They’ve said that they sold a million more Wiis than they expected in 2008, so that can’t be the culprit. No one really knows what’s happening, really. Perhaps manufacturing costs haven’t gone down as much as they’d like, or maybe post-holiday sales aren’t nearly what they hoped. Whatever the case, at least they’re being semi-up-front about it.

By the way, in the illustration above, Mario represents Nintendo, and the first Goomba is the market. The second Goomba is the unknown, backing the market as it slays Nintendo, represented by Mario as I have already explained.