Nintendo's net profit drops 61% in FY 2015 as stronger yen bites

OSAKA – Nintendo Co. said Wednesday its group net profit fell 60.6 percent in the 2015 business year ended last month to 16.51 billion ( 139.5 million), bruised by the yen's appreciation against major currencies and languid portable game sales. With nearly three-quarters of the video game maker's sales coming from overseas markets, the strong yen saw the company take an 18.36 billion hit in foreign exchange losses, denting its net profit figure. The video game maker's operating profit grew 32.7 percent to 32.88 billion on sales of 504.46 billion, down 8.2 percent. In addition to the currency woes, sales of software for the Nintendo 3DS portable console shrank as the company failed to follow up on fiscal 2014's major hit games. In the year ended March 31, hardware sales of the 3DS totaled 6.79 million units, down from 8.73 million units the previous year, while sales of the Wii U console came to 3.26 million units, down from 3.38 million units.