We store cookies, you can get more info from our privacy policy.
Switch

Nintendo Releases 2018 Fiscal Year Results

by Donald Theriault - April 25, 2019, 12:49 am EDT
Total comments: 5 Source: Nintendo

This'll need several Brinks trucks to carry.

Nintendo has released their earnings for the 2018 fiscal year (April 1, 2018 -> March 31, 2019) at the close of business today in Japan. This report includes figures for the 4th fiscal quarter (January 1 -> March 31) as well.

All monetary figures reported in yen, with comparisons to the US dollar based on a market rate of $1 = ¥111.812 provided for comparison only.

Financial Results

  • Operating income: ¥29.671bn for Q4, ¥249.7bn for the year (~$265m/$2.23bn)
  • Ordinary net income: ¥37.032bn for Q4, ¥277.3bn for the year (~$332m/$2.48bn)
  • Revenue: ¥203.205bn for Q4, ¥1.2tn for the year (~$1.82bn/$10.7bn)
  • Digital sales: ¥34;6bn for Q4, ¥118.8bn for the year (~$309m/$1.06bn)
  • Mobile revenue: ¥12.7bn for Q4, ¥46bn for the year (~$113.6m/$411m)

The revenue and profit numbers are the best Nintendo has seen since fiscal 2009.

Hardware Sales

Switch: New LTD total (shipped) is 34.74m, which is based on Q4 shipments of 2.47m and total shipments for the year of 16.95m. This is short of Nintendo's original 20m goal by 3.05m and just misses their 17m goal by 50k. Switch has now passed the N64 (32.93m), with the next internal target being the Super Famicom/SNES which it needs to ship another 14.36m units to hit.

The 3DS family's LTD is now 75.08m, for Q4 shipments of 240,000 and full year shipments of 2.55m.

Total software

Nintendo shipped a total of 118.55m units of Switch software in the fiscal year, exceeding their revised goal of 110m units.

Fiscal 2019 Guidance

Nintendo's initial estimates are an operating profit of ¥260bn, 18m units of Switch hardware, 1m 3DS units, and 125m units of Switch software in the fiscal year (April 1 to March 31, 2020).

Software Performances

For software debuting in the corner, New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe shipped 3.31m copies while Yoshi's Crafted World shipped 1.11m units.

Among prior releases:

  • Super Smash Bros Ultimate: 1.77m in the quarter, LTD 13.81m
  • Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu / Eevee: 630,000 in the quarter, LTD 10.63m
  • Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 1.67m in the quarter, LTD 16.69m
  • Super Mario Odyssey: 680,000 in the quarter, LTD 14.44m
  • The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch only): 1.09m in the quarter, LTD 12.77m
  • Super Mario Party: 1.1m in the quarter, LTD 6.4m

A full list of million sellers is in the gallery below.

Release Schedule Revelations

Super Mario Maker 2's release date was announced last night, and it is included in the schedule printed in the gallery.

Images

Talkback

EnnerApril 25, 2019

"Nintendo-like Profits."

With Fire Emblem Three Houses being the only major title I can think of being delayed since last fiscal year's forecasts, I wonder if Nintendo really thought the trio of Pokemon Lets Go, Smash Ultimate, and Three Houses would've been the special mix to hit that 20 million goal. Or maybe there was some unknown game that was unexpectedly delayed. They are a little more than 3 million shy of their initial aggressive forecast. One or two big hits could've made that difference, I think.

ShyGuyApril 25, 2019

I think Nintendo expected better performance from Labo.

They went from 32.2m to 34.74, right? So 2.54m sold in Jan-Feb-March. That's pretty good, but another big title may have pushed that a little farther.


The lineup is looking solid for the rest of the year, but out of:
Animal Crossing
Lugi's Mansion
Link's Awakenng

One of those has to be getting delayed. I doubt Pokemon will be delayed.

KhushrenadaApril 25, 2019

I can see Luigi's Mansion being delayed. It took a long time to release 2 on the 3DS from its initial announcement. I feel Animal Crossing production had to have started already on the Wii U and that development has carried on into the Switch and may be much further along then we know.

Mop it upApril 25, 2019

Have they actually shown anything from Animal Crossing? It might be delayed.

Quote from: Khushrenada

I feel Animal Crossing production had to have started already on the Wii U and that development has carried on into the Switch and may be much further along then we know.

Didn't the Animal Crossing team work on the Splatoon games during that time period?

Luigi DudeApril 25, 2019

Nintendo has shown games at E3 all the time and announced release dates for the fall.  We've already seen footage of Luig's Mansion so for it to get an offical release date for say, October around Halloween is still very plausible.  Animal Crossing can also still make it by the end of the year.  Smash Bros Ultimate didn't have any gameplay footage shown until E3 last year but they still announced and delivered an early December release date.

I think a combo of Luigi's Mansion in October, Pokemon in November and Animal Crossing in December could still happen.  The Links Awakening remake can easily be put somewhere in any of these months as well since 2D Zelda isn't as big as 3D Zelda so Nintendo won't view it as taking attention from the above three.  Or if Nintendo does want the Link's Awakening remake to be a much bigger deal then I could see it getting delayed to early 2020 so it'll have more attention to itself.

Quote from: Mop

Didn't the Animal Crossing team work on the Splatoon games during that time period?

Not the entire team.  They would have had at least a few members planning out and working on Animal Crossing during this time so that once Splatoon was done and the full team got together development can go pretty fast.  Considering how important Animal Crossing is to the Japanese market I imagine at the very least it's far enough in development to make it out in Japan by the holidays.  Whether NOA and NOE will have it localized in time though could be the real question since there was a 7 month gap between when New Leaf was released in Japan and when it finally released in the West.

Got a news tip? Send it in!
Advertisement
Advertisement