Nintendo promises stronger results with Switch 2 console going on sale in June
FILE - The Nintendo Switch 2 is demonstrated during a media event, in New York, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
By YURI KAGEYAMA
Japanese video-game maker Nintendo on Thursday reported a 43% decline in profit for the fiscal year through March, but promised a turnaround as its Switch console upgrade goes on sale in June.
Nintendo Co.'s profit for the fiscal year through March totaled 278.8 billion yen ($1.9 billion), down from 490 billion yen the previous fiscal year.
Annual sales slipped 30% to 1.16 trillion yen ($8 billion) from 1.67 trillion yen, according to the Kyoto-based maker of the Super Mario and Donkey Kong games.
The fortunes of game companies tend to decline somewhat as time passes after a new game machine goes on sale since many people have already bought the machine, although new hit software helps boost the results.
Much anticipation has been building over the rollout of the so-called Switch 2, which goes on sale June 5.
Nintendo said it expects to sell 15 million Switch 2 consoles for the fiscal year through March 2026.
Demand has dwindled for the current Switch, now in its eighth year after its debut. The number of Switch players around the world remains above 128 million people, according to Nintendo.
Nintendo said attractive software was coming for the Switch 2 later this year, including 'The Legend of Zelda' games, a Pokemon title and a Kirby game, as well as offerings from outside software companies.
Also adding to the momentum is the opening of a Nintendo store in San Francisco and the Super Nintendo World amusement facility opening in Orlando, both set for this month, according to Nintendo.
Nintendo is projecting a 300 billion yen ($2.1 billion) profit for the fiscal year ending in March next year, a nearly 8% improvement from the fiscal year just ended, on sales of 1.9 trillion yen ($13 billion), up 63% on-year.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
SoraNews24
an hour ago
- SoraNews24
Starbucks Japan releases exclusive new Mango Au Lait for summer
A simple beverage that's ripe for customisation. Starbucks has gone totally fruity this summer, starting the season with strawberries before setting them aside for mangoes as the star ingredient on the menu. While the limited-edition Frappuccinos are currently stealing the limelight, diehard fans will be seeking out a more understated new beverage called the Mango Au Lait, which focuses on simplicity to allow the fruit to shine. Made with only milk and fruit pulp, this is a drink that's bound to explode in popularity as the weather heats up. Not only is it refreshing, but the simplicity makes it super easy to drink. While it's usually served without cream, in-store baristas recommend customising it with whipped cream for an additional 55 yen (US$0.38) and a free sprinkling of cinnamon powder, so we went with their advice and were glad we did, as the spice added an exotic aroma to the mix. With mango pulp at the bottom of the cup, and blended into the milky body, this is a drink that lets you enjoy full-on mango flavour when you sip it as is. Stirring the mixture together, however, creates a mellower, creamier experience with a sweetness that becomes more pronounced in every sip. The simplicity makes the drink suitable for a wide variety of customisations, and the cinnamon tuned out to be a perfect partner for mango, adding a dash of extra flavour to excite the taste buds right through to the very last sip. This is the kind of easy-to-drink beverage that you'll want to order again and again, so it's a good idea to alternate between the standard version and a few customisations while it's available until 8 July. Priced at 590 yen, this is a great alternative to the more well-known drinks on the menu, and a nice palate cleanser for the super spicy Hot Honey Oriental Mango & Tea Frappuccino, which is currently burning mouths around the nation. Photos ©SoraNews24 ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
Tokyo Weekender
an hour ago
- Tokyo Weekender
JO1's Shion Tsurubo Under Investigation for Criminal Online Gambling Activity
It's a bad week to be a male idol. Following BTS's Jungkook's accidental brush with Japanese politics via a MAGA hat, JO1's Shion Tsurubo, 24, is now facing possible prosecution in Japan on suspicion of illegal online gambling. Over the course of nine months, he's believed to have placed roughly ¥15,000,000 in bets on a foreign casino site — and lost nearly half of it. Even in J-pop scandals, it seems, the house always wins. The site, K8, is legally operated overseas. But Japanese law is strict: Gambling from within Japan, even on legal international platforms, is flatly illegal. Tsurubo reportedly accessed the site from his smartphone, often while traveling for work, and favored games like online roulette. When questioned, he allegedly said, 'I like pachinko and I could do it anywhere.' Apparently, that included hotel rooms between tour stops. The case wasn't uncovered through a moral crusade against idol misbehavior, but as collateral damage in a separate criminal investigation into illicit funds. Tsurubo was voluntarily questioned earlier this year, and was formally accused of 'simple gambling' — a light-sounding charge that still comes with legal consequences and plenty of public scrutiny. A Swift Fall — and an Even Quicker Redemption Arc On May 31 , Tsurubo's agency, Lapone Entertainment, announced he would take a 10-day break from group activities. During that time, he reportedly completed a 'rehabilitation program' and reflected deeply on the concept of social responsibility. On June 10, he was back in action, new and improved. Lapone's statement promised that Tsurubo would be 'more sincere than ever' in his future activities. Tsurubo himself issued a formal apology, expressing 'deep shame' and pledging to win back trust through his actions. He ended with a familiar refrain in the idol world: sincere regret, vows of personal growth and thanks to fans for sticking around. Japan's High-Stakes Online Gambling Problem While online casinos like K8 operate legally in other countries, gambling from within Japan remains unambiguously illegal. Still, the business thrives. Annual online gambling from Japanese users is estimated to exceed ¥1.2 trillion. Tsurubo didn't break new ground. He just had more eyes on him. When a 24-year-old idol is punished for doing in private what half the country does in broad daylight, it's worth asking: Is this about justice, or just optics? Whether prosecutors press charges or quietly shelve the case, the outcome may say less about justice than it does about visibility. He (allegedly) bet ¥15,000,000 and lost ¥7,000,000. Now he's betting on public forgiveness.
Tokyo Weekender
an hour ago
- Tokyo Weekender
How a Terrible Japanese Porn Franchise Became the World's Longest-Running Film Series
There's a lot to be said about Japan's porn industry. It's huge , earning tens of billions of dollars a year. It helped keep people indoors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. And it even has its own porn actress theme park . It pushes the envelope on the definition of porn. The world of Japanese adult entertainment also has another claim to fame: the creation of the (likely) longest-running film series on the planet. However, it's really more of a claim to infamy, as it belongs to the Groper Train (Japanese title: Chikan Densha ) movies. List of Contents: Defining the Longest-Running Film Series A Dark Journey Into the Films The Destructive Reality Behind Groper Train Final Stop for Groper Train Related Posts Still from 'Chikan Densha: Ikenai Yume Ryoko' (2014) | IMDB Defining the Longest-Running Film Series How, exactly, do you define the world's 'longest-running' film series? If you're going by which series debuted first, then Universal's The Mummy — kicking off in 1932 and last in cinemas in 2017 before going on hiatus — is due the title. You could also make a case for Batman , since his first serial came out in 1943, and we're still getting new movies about the Dark Knight. Those, however, would be the oldest franchises. If you measure the longest series by the number of entries it produced, some sites will tell you that the title should go to the Wong Fei-Hung filmography about the titular Chinese martial artist and folk hero who's been portrayed by Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung and other actors who starred in 123 movies. However, 123 is just a little over half of the number of entries in the Groper Train movies. The exact number is actually a matter of some discussion, as a lot of the Groper Train films — and information on them — have been lost. Online sources put their total number at 227 films. The films in the series were written and directed by dozens of different people and were primarily distributed by Xces Film, Okura and Shintoho, according to the documentary Riding the Groper Train — Part Two . And if that last studio name sounds familiar, it's because it is related — in a roundabout way — to Toho, which is best known as the producer and distributor of Godzilla , Akira Kurosawa movies and Studio Ghibli productions. Still from 'Chikan Saishu Densha' (1978) | IMDB A Dark Journey Into the Films The Groper Train films primarily and sort of self-explanatorily take place on trains where a woman — and also a man in one gay take on the theme — gets molested by a groper. You'd think that such a concept might wear thin after a few dozen movies, but the Groper Train series has been around since 1975. The films in the series are all fictional, featuring adult film actors — although some of the earliest entries were shot guerilla-style on real trains. Many of the early films that were shot on a set still featured exterior scenes on actual station platforms as well. Stylistically, the Groper Train series is a classic pink film. Japanese pink films, or pinku eiga , emerged in the 1960s as erotic, low-budget independent films that blended soft-core porn with stronger narratives, artistic styles and experimental storytelling. To qualify as a pink film, a work generally had to include a minimum number of sex scenes, though Japanese censorship laws prohibited the depiction of actual intercourse or genitalia. During their peak, pink films were controversial, yet tolerated as training grounds for emerging talent. For instance, director Takahisa Zeze — the force behind acclaimed films like Tapestry , one of the best Japanese movies of 2020 , and Tonbi , a poignant film with a focus on single fatherhood — was once part of a group called the 'Four Heavenly Kings of Pink.' Obviously, none of the Groper Train films rise to those levels of filmmaking, but the point is that they weren't just porn without a story. They had actual plots — some of the films were framed as detective thrillers, for instance, and at least one involved time travel — and that allowed them to stick around and eventually break filmmaking records. Still from 'Chikan densha: Chibusa ga Yureru' (1990) | IMDB The Destructive Reality Behind Groper Train The reality behind Groper Train is sobering. Sexual assault on Japanese trains is a pervasive problem, so well-known around the world that the governments of Canada and the UK are warning tourists about it . Even the Japanese word chikan — meaning molester, groper or simply pervert — has started to appear in international travel advisories. Most victims, though, remain Japanese. A 2024 government survey found that 56.3% of women and 15.2% of men had experienced groping on trains, with up to 3,000 attacks occurring per year. And that's just the reported cases. It's alleged that most attacks happen in the morning when the trains are packed, meaning that many of the victims are minors on their way to school. Nearly 40% of victims don't engage the groper out of fear and end up traumatized by the assault, suffering from physical and mental distress, flashbacks and agoraphobia. Studies have shown that the best way to stop a groper is to get the people around you to intervene. There are some apps that help with that, with one of them, Digi Police, downloaded 800,000 times between its release in 2016 and April 2024. The only real long-term solution to groping is other passengers stepping up to help. A study has shown that 96.8% of gropers stop when they're called out by a third party, because train perverts are cowards who prey on the vulnerable. Final Stop for Groper Train In the documentary Riding the Groper Train – Part Two , pink director and actor Yutaka Ikejima said that Japan used to release up to three Groper Train movies each for cinema's three peak seasons, i.e., during the New Year period, Golden Week and the summer. And different studios were free to make their own films under the Groper Train umbrella — resulting in dozens of new films per year. In 1986 alone, that meant 17 new Groper Train releases. However, since then, the numbers have steadily fallen, and the franchise now seems to be dead. The last installment came out in 2020, with only one movie released in 2019, none in 2018 and two in 2017. Maybe now's the time for The Mummy to emerge from hiatus and reclaim the crown. Related Posts Kaho Shibuya Reveals the Bright and Dark Sides of the Japanese Porn Industry A Complete Beginner's Guide to Live-Action Japanese Cinema What's Up with Japan's Women-only Cars?
