Nintendo reported a surge in revenue and operating profit for the June quarter boosted by the success of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” and the the popularity of its latest Zelda game for the Switch console.
Here’s how Nintendo did in its fiscal first quarter versus Refinitiv estimates:
Revenue: 461.34 billion yen ($3.2 billion) versus 395.40 billion yen expected.
Net profit: 181.02 billion yen versus 109.91 billion yen expected.
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Nintendo’s revenue 50% from a year ago while net profit surged by 52%. Operating profit came in at 185.44 billion yen, ahead of expectations, jumping 82.4% year-on-year.
Prior to the fiscal first quarter, Nintendo had seen two straight quarters of revenue and
Nintendo saw a boost from the “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” based on the company’s best-known characters, which has generated more than $1 billion at the box office since its April release. The film was produced by Universal Studios.
The Japanese gaming giant also released a highly-anticipated game called “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” in May, which it said was the fastest selling title in the history of the series.
“In the first quarter of this fiscal year, both sales and profits were notably large for a first quarter mainly due to the concurrent releases of ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ and ‘The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’, and we made steady progress toward our full-year earnings forecast,” Nintendo said in an earnings release.
Nintendo previously forecasted its revenue for the current fiscal year, which ends in March 2024, at 1.45 trillion yen and 340 billion yen of profit.
Switch refresh in focus
Nintendo also previously forecast sales of 15 million units of its flagships Switch games console series for its current fiscal year ending March 2024. That compares with just under 18 million units sold in the previous fiscal year.
The company said that it sold 3.91 million Switch consoles in the June quarter, up by 13.9% on the year.
Chris Pratt and Charlie Day voice Mario and Luigi in Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
Universal
The Switch is now a more than six-year old console, with investors fearing buyers’ interest may have peaked — but the rise in sales may help to allay some of those concerns. The quarter highlights Nintendo’s ability to continue to generate revenue from its 116 million of annual playing users and perhaps extend the longevity of the Switch.
Over the life of the popular console, Nintendo has tried to refresh it with a handheld version and with one with an improved screen. But speculation continues on whether Nintendo will release a new version to breathe fresh life into the device and the company.
Analysts at Jefferies said in a note in April that the company will likely release a refreshed version of the Switch in this current fiscal year, or the next such period, which starts in April 2024. But the timing will depend on how well Nintendo’s overall financial performance is, and whether the company will need a new Switch to help boost sales over this year or the next.
The Mario and Zelda effect
The Mario movie benefitted various parts of Nintendo’s business, creating a halo effect that drove users to the Japanese gaming giant’s products. Nintendo said the film supported sales of games featuring the famous Italian plumber, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
It also helped Nintendo rake in 31.8 billion Japanese yen in June quarterly revenue for its mobile and intellectual property-related business — a rise of 190% year-on-year.
“The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” was another big factor in Nintendo’s bumper quarter. The latest game in the Zelda franchise sold 18.51 million units in the quarter.
Mario and Zelda pushed Nintendo to post a 26% year-on-year rise in software sales to 52.21 million units.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
The Texas-based space company said in an updated prospectus Monday that it’s planning to sell about 16.2 million shares. The offering could raise up to $631.8 million.
Earlier this month, Firefly filed its plans to go public on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “FLY.”
Its debut comes amid a renewed push in the space race, as billionaire-led companies such as Elon Musk‘s SpaceX funnel more money into space activities and startups try their luck at the public markets.
Space tech firm Voyager went public in June, while reusable rocket developer Innovative Rocket Technologies said it plans to debut through a $400 million special purpose acquisition company merger.
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Firefly’s public market launch also coincides with a revival in IPO activity as debilitating interest rates and an overhang from President Donald Trump‘s tariff plans begin to clear. Design software company Figma is slated to go public this week after raising its range.
Firefly makes rockets, space tugs and lunar landers, including satellite launching rockets known as Alpha. At the end of March, the company reported a sixfold jump in revenue from $8.3 million a year ago to $55.9 million.
The company also reported a net loss of about $60.1 million, up from a loss of $52.8 million a year ago, and said its backlog totaled about $1.1 billion.
Some of Firefly’s major backers include AE Industrial Partners, which led an early investing round in the company. Defense contractor Northrop Grumman invested $50 million in the startup this May, and Firefly says it has collaborated with Lockheed Martin, L3Harris and NASA.
Elena Nadolinski, founder and CEO at Iron Fish, and Dylan Field, CEO and co-founder of Figma, attend the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 7, 2022.
The company now expects shares to go for $30 to 32 each, up from the range of $25 to $28 that it disclosed on July 21.
The new range, announced in a regulatory filing, suggests Figma would be worth $17.6 billion to $18.8 billion on a fully diluted basis.
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That would still be below the $20 billion total that Adobe had offered when it announced plans to acquire Figma in 2022. The deal fell apart after regulators pushed back on competitive grounds.
Figma is among the most valuable privately held technology companies.
Financial technology companies Chime and Circle went public in June, and CoreWeave shares debuted in March. Circle and CoreWeave shares have since more than doubled in price.
The Huawei flagship store and the Apple flagship store at Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street in Shanghai, China, Sept. 2, 2024.
Cfoto | Future Publishing | Getty Images
Huawei reclaimed the top spot in China’s smartphone market in the second quarter of the year, while Apple returned to growth in the country — one of its most critical markets — data released by technology market analyst firm Canalys showed on Monday.
Huawei shipped 12.2 million smartphones in China in the three months ended June, a rise of 15% year on year — equating to 18% market share. It’s the first time Huawei has been the biggest player by market share in China since the first quarter of 2024, according to Canalys.
Apple, meanwhile, shipped 10.1 million smartphones in the quarter in China, up 4% year on year and ranking fifth. It is the first time Apple has recorded growth in China since the fourth quarter of 2023, Canalys said.
Shipments represent the number of devices sent to retailers. They do no equate directly to sales but are a gauge of demand.
The numbers come ahead of Apple’s quarterly earnings release this week, with investors watching the company’s performance in China, a market where the Cupertino giant has faced significant challenges, including intense competition from Huawei and other local players such as Xiaomi.
Huawei, which made a comeback at the end of 2023 after its smartphone business was crippled by U.S. sanctions, has eaten away at Apple’s share.
Apple’s return to growth in China will be a welcome sign for investors. The U.S. tech giant “strategically adjusted its pricing” for the iPhone 16 series in China, which helped it grow, Canalys said. Chinese e-commerce firms discounted Apple’s iPhone 16 models during the quarter. And Apple itself also increased trade-in prices for some iPhone models.
Meanwhile, competition in China has intensified. Huawei has aggressively launched various smartphones in the past year and has started to roll out HarmonyOS 5, its self-developed operating system, across various devices. It is a rival to Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
“This move is expected to accelerate the expansion of its independent ecosystem’s user base, while also placing greater demands on system compatibility and user experience,” Lucas Zhong, analyst at Canalys, said in a press release.