Japanese game maker Nintendo reports robust profits on strong Switch 2 sales
By Yuri Kageyama
FILE -A Nintendo logo is seen June 5, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo, the Japanese video game maker behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises, reported an 18.6% surge in net profit for the first fiscal quarter Friday on the back of strong demand for its new Switch 2 console.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co.’s April-June profit totaled 96.03 billion yen ($640 million), up from nearly 81 billion yen. Quarterly sales more than doubled to 572.36 billion yen ($3.8 billion).
Nintendo said it sold 3.5 million Switch 2 game consoles globally on the first four days after it hit store shelves June 5, a record pace for a Nintendo game machine. Its sales continue to be strong, it said.
The company said the new console’s higher price added to sales growth momentum. The new version sells for about $450 compared to $300 for the previous Switch when it first went on sale in 2017, .
Especially popular games included “Mario Kart World” and “Donkey Kong Bananza.” “Pokemon Friends,” which went on sale last month for the older Switch, can be also played on the new Switch.
The Switch works both as a handheld portable machine and as a home console.
Nintendo stuck to its forecast to sell 15 million Switch 2 machines through this fiscal year.
Nintendo left unchanged its profit forecast for the year through March 2026, at 300 billion yen ($2 billion) profit, up nearly 8% on year.
Nintendo stock, which has steadily climbed in the past year gaining more than 50%, edged down nearly 1% before earnings were announced.
There are some worries about the impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Japanese exports, but that did not appear to affect Nintendo’s overall projections.
Pernilla Sjöholm, star of the Tinder Swindler on Netflix and founder of IDfier, explains how she went from fraud to co-founder of her own company. Watch!
DJ X, alongside Molly Holder, Senior Director of Product Personalization, takes us inside Spotify's A.I. DJ and how it's the best new way to listen to music.
Skype users are scrambling to find an alternative after Microsoft shut down the pioneering internet phone service which let people make cheap long distance calls and chat with other users. Google Voice lets users make calls from a smartphone or a desktop web browser but it's only available to people in the U.S. Viber users can call phone numbers but can't get a number to receive calls. Zoom offers phone options too. You could get a number from a low cost virtual carrier or try other internet phone services. Microsoft says some Skype features will migrate to Teams, but its Teams Phone feature is only for businesses.
Amid a backdrop of ongoing tariff uncertainty, more and more gamers are facing price hikes. Microsoft raised recommended retailer pricing for its Xbox consoles and controllers around the world this week. Its Xbox Series S, for example, now starts at $379.99 in the U.S. — up $80 from the $299.99 price tag that debuted in 2020. And its more powerful Xbox Series X will be $599.99 going forward, a $100 jump from its previous $499.99 listing. The tech giant didn’t mention tariffs specifically, but cited wider “market conditions and the rising cost of development.” Beyond the U.S., Microsoft also laid out Xbox price adjustments for Europe, the U.K. and Australia. The company said all other countries would also receive updates locally.
