Nintendo slashes profits forecasts

Nintendo has today lowered its profit forecasts for the fiscal year ended March 31 from the 54 billion yen ($520 million) it predicted in January to 33 billion yen ($317 million). Nintendo claims that the main reason for its lower profits is a larger-than-expected currency-related loss, believed to be in the region of 68 billion yen ($654 million), caused by the yen's surge against the US dollar.

Despite today's announcement, Nintendo maintained its sales forecast of 510 billion yen ($4.9 billion) for the fiscal year. In the fiscal year ended March 2003, Nintendo earned 67.27 billion yen ($648 million) on sales of 504.13 billion yen ($4.86 billion).