Nintendo Shares Fall After March Wii Sales in U.S. Drop 17%

By Hiroshi Suzuki

April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co., the world’s largest maker of handheld game machines, fell the most in more than two months in Osaka trading after U.S. sales of its Wii video-game console declined for the first time in 14 months.

Nintendo lost 5.2 percent to 26,580 yen as of the 11 a.m. trading break on the Osaka Securities Exchange, dropping the most since Feb. 2. It was the third-biggest drag on the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index, while Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average gained 2.2 percent.

March sales of the world’s most-popular console fell 17 percent from a year earlier to 601,000 players, Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group said yesterday in an e-mailed statement.

“The severe sales result in the U.S. prompted disappointment among investors,” said Shigeo Kikuchi, an analyst at Takagi Securities Co. in Tokyo. “Nintendo had been perceived as one of the winners.”

In the same period, stores in the U.S. sold 330,000 of Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 consoles, a 26 percent gain, and 218,000 of Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3, a 15 percent drop, NPD said. U.S. industry revenue slid to $1.43 billion.

Nintendo has sold 19.6 million Wii consoles in the U.S. since the player was introduced in November 2006. The popularity has led game developers including Electronic Arts Inc. to create exclusive titles for the system. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said March sales suffered in the absence of a top release like last year’s “Super Smash Brothers: Brawl.”

“Our launch schedules are more spread out so we’re going to have these tough comparisons month to month,” Fils-Aime said in an interview yesterday. “But if you look at the overall trend of our business, it continues to be very healthy.”

Trailing Sony

Wii sales in Japan trailed Sony’s PlayStation 3 in the five weeks ended March 29, Tokyo-based research firm Enterbrain said on April 7. The March decline in the U.S. was the first since a supply shortage crimped sales in January 2008.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said last week sales of the game console are now “experiencing the most unhealthy condition since it hit the Japan market.”

Kyoto, western-Japan based Nintendo will begin sales of “Wii Sports Resort,” a sequel to the company’s best-selling game software, in June, Iwata told reporters in Tokyo on April 9.

“With new software titles, we are hopeful we’re going to revitalize the Wii market in Japan.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=asvrkI.0c5Ps&refer=japan

Huge drop, shows just how volatile the whole market is.

interesting. Media dogs have been hounding for the "inevitable" fall from grace. Fear market, etc.

I don't think its true at all, i think WM+, Punch Out to a degree and E3 will change minds fast.

This must be the ghost of E3 past.

Though now Nintendo can claim software does drive hardware.

Aw crap, somebody loan me some money so I can buy all this up real quick.

So they're going to accept that the Wii Music / Animal Crossing combo wasn't the best idea to keep interest trought 4 months?

"world’s largest maker of handheld game machines"

Handheld game machines? They work hard at Bloomberg ensuring accuracy in their reporting

If Wii easily outsold both competitors combined and without any major releases to counter RE5 or SF4, then why are people selling it's stock? Yes it was down month over month but then the whole market was down (except 360).

Those same investor's will probably end up rebuying Nintendo stocks after Wii Sports Resort launches - and at a higher price.

I saw that but thought it might be a little much for them to take in one day :)

Stocks are scary these days as confidence goes with the wind change...

Correct.  Once the DSi keeps rolling out the sales and with WM+ / WSR (also a ton of good looking 3rd party games coming out later this year) coming out soon Wii sales will pick up.  So I see no real slowdown in Wii/DS sales.  Sales will go back up (especially during the holidays) and the stock should go up again.