In the first three months of 2022, Nintendo shipped around 4.11 million Switch consoles, bringing the total to 23.06 million for the financial year.
The number was just enough to meet the company's revised forecast of 23 million. But now, the Japanese gaming company announced that it would lower its sales goal.
Nintendo Decreases Sales Forecast
Nintendo originally predicted 25.5 million units for 2022, then 24 million, before reaching its final forecast in March, according to The Verge.
The figure represents a 20% decline from the 2021 figure of 28.83 million consoles shipped, with Nintendo citing shortages of semiconductors and other components.
The gaming company has now shipped 107.65 million Switch consoles in total since March 2017. Switch is the company's most successful portable console, having overtaken the home console Wii.
However, it still has a lot to go to catch up to the Nintendo DS figure of 154.02 million units or the Game Boy's 118.69 million.
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As for its software, "Pokemon Legends: Arceus" made a strong debut in the last quarter, with 12.64 million units shipped so far.
For comparison, the Pokemon remakes "Brilliant Diamond" and "Shining Pearl" debuted with 13.97 million units and have now shipped 14.65 million in total, so Arceus is performing in line with traditional Pokemon games.
Nintendo's forecast for its current fiscal year, which began on Apr. 1, is to ship 21 million Switch consoles, suggesting sales for the system may well have peaked, according to CNBC.
The company's revenue and operating profit are also expected to decline by 5.6% and 15.6%, respectively.
The first-party release schedule for the year includes upcoming Nintendo Switch games like "Splatoon 3," "Xenoblade Chronicles 3," and "Pokemon Scarlet and Violet."
The much-awaited sequel to "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild" is set for a spring 2023 release date, which may or may not fall in the current financial year ending Mar. 31.
Nintendo Stock Split
Aside from the surprise sales announcement, Nintendo also announced a 10-for-1 stock split on May 10 as the Japanese gaming giant aims to make its shares more appealing to its retail investors, according to Video Game Chronicles.
The shareholders have been calling for a stock split for some time to increase the liquidity of Nintendo's shares. The move will take effect on Oct. 1, when each share of common stock will be split into 10 shares.
Several major tech firms, including Apple and Amazon, have announced stock splits over the past few years.
They do not fundamentally change Nintendo in any way but do make a single share cheaper, which could make them more attractive to retail investors.
Stock splits are positive for the share price of a company. Nintendo shares are up 5% year-to-date despite other major technology companies losing billions of dollars of value in 2022 amid a sharp sell-off of risk assets.
The gaming company also announced plans to purchase back 56.36 billion Japanese yen, or $432.9 million worth of shares. The transaction will happen on May 11.
Nintendo stated that it now has 100 million playing users every year. The company has a strong portfolio of recognized characters and games that it has been able to capitalize on in the past few years.
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Written by Sophie Webster
