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Nintendo’s annual profit rose 8.5 percent, propelled by its hit Wii and DS game machines, but a forecast for lower sales shows even the resilient video game maker isn’t totally immune to the global slump. Still, Nintendo is faring much better than other big name Japanese manufacturers like Toyota Motor and Hitachi, both forecasting record annual losses.
Japanese electronics maker Sharp is forecasting a bigger loss than first anticipated for the fiscal year ended March, blaming the global recession, a clean out of inventory and restructuring costs. Sharp expects to post a net loss of $1.3 billion, worse than the $1 billion loss it had projected in February.
The recession is causing a massive consumer shift in Japan: No longer do its famously finicky and brand-conscious consumers assume imported and no-name electronics are as cheap in quality as they are in price. As products from toasters to laptops carry increasingly similar components and special features, price is becoming as important a distinction among electronics in Japan as it is in most countries.
Sony projected it would report its first annual net loss in 14 years Thursday, and Chief Executive Howard Stringer vowed to turn around the company with pay cuts, job reductions and trendier gadgets. “The massive economic upheaval being experienced across the globe is sparing no one in the consumer electronics world,” Stringer said at a hastily called news conference.
Sony drastically lowered profit and sales forecasts for the fiscal year Thursday, blaming deteriorating sales of flat-panel TVs and other gadgets battered by a global slowdown. The latest numbers would mean that Sony’s profit for the fiscal year ending March 2009 are set to plunge 59 percent from the previous year.