Japanese game company Nintendo reports a jump in profit on the popularity of its Switch 2

TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo’s first quarter profit surged 53.5% as the popularity of its recent Super Mario movie worked with solid demand for the Switch 2 gaming console to support the Japanese video-game company’s bottom line.

Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. reported Thursday 147.4 billion yen ($933 million) in April-June profit, up from 96 billion yen in the same period a year ago.

Quarterly sales dipped 9.5% to 517.8 billion yen ($3.3 billion).

Working as a negative for Nintendo, as with many Japanese companies, were U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, as well as the rising price of memory chips and other components.

Nintendo is forecasting 310 billion yen ($2 billion) in profit for the full fiscal year through March 2027, down nearly 27% from the previous fiscal year, on annual sales slipping 11% to 2.05 trillion yen ($13 billion).

Nintendo said sales of Switch 2 machines totaled 3.82 million globally. Nintendo’s older Switch business is still holding up, with both console and software sales continuing, even as the new machine is also in demand.

In Switch 2 software, “Yoshi and the Mysterious Book,” released in May, and “Pokemon Pokopia,” released last year, were popular, leading to software sales totaling 9.46 million units for the quarter, according to Nintendo.

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” raked in 517.8 billion yen ($3.3 billion), much of it from overseas.

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The Nintendo Switch 2, which went on sale in June last year, is still going strong, the company said.

Nintendo hopes to keep building on the momentum by adding more games to the lineup, including “Splatoon Raiders,” which went on sale last month, as well as new games in the works, such as “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.”

Nintendo is projecting Switch 2 console sales to total 16.5 million units for the fiscal year, down nearly 17% from the previous year. Console sales tend to drop after the first strong year.

Nintendo is expecting strong game software sales at 60 million units for the fiscal year, up 23%.

Nintendo shares jumped 2.9% in Tokyo trading after earnings results were announced.

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Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama