Nintendo Co. on Thursday lowered its sales forecast for its Switch console to 24 million units, down 1.5 million units, in the current business year through March due to a prolonged global semiconductor shortage.

However, supported by strong demand for games on the popular console, Nintendo upgraded its net profit forecast for fiscal 2021 even though the first half result through September was 20.6 percent lower than a year earlier at 171.83 billion yen ($1.5 billion) on sales of 624.27 billion yen, down 18.9 percent.

The Kyoto-based gaming giant now expects a net profit of 350 billion yen for the full year. It compares with 340 billion yen initially projected in May, which represents a 27.1 percent fall from a year earlier.

Its operating profit is projected to fall 18.8 percent from a year earlier to 520 billion yen, but up from the earlier estimate of 500 billion yen. The sales forecast remains unchanged at 1.6 trillion yen, down 9.0 percent from a year earlier.

Nintendo said it expects to sell 200 million Switch games in fiscal 2021, up 10 million units from the earlier projection.

==Kyodo

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