Nintendo reaches eight-year profit high

Japanese video game company Nintendo has published its Q2 results, revealing its strongest quarterly profits for eight years, according to Reuters

The gaming giant’s Nintendo Switch console, released in March 2017, has driven this financial success. Eurogamer noted that the console’s total sales figures of 22.86mn units have already exceeded the 21.74mn GameCube units sold over its six-year lifetime.

Reuters said that the company’s US$274.11mn operating profit for Q2 (July-September) marked an increase of 30% over the same period in 2017.

Nintendo’s Switch sales are likely to take another upswing by the end of the year, with the firm’s first Pokémon games for the console set to release in November, while its wildly popular Smash Bros series is set to make its Switch debut in December.

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Exclusive titles like Pokémon and Smash Bros are highly likely to drive increased hardware sales.

The firm sold 42mn Switch games worldwide between April and September compared with 22mn for the same period last year, and Nintendo is likely confident that its upcoming releases will maintain this momentum through to the end of the financial year.

According to Reuters, Nintendo sold 5.07mn Switch consoles between April and September. While the firm remains some way from the annual target of 20mn units by the end of March 2019, it is confident that this figure is attainable.

The firm also launched its Nintendo Switch Online service in September as another means to boost its revenue, meaning players must pay a subscription fee to play online multiplayer games.