Nintendo sinks as 3D launch misses holiday season (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Shares in Nintendo Co Ltd fell sharply on Thursday after it said the previous day its new 3D-capable handheld game machine would go on sale next year, missing the crucial year-end shopping season.

Nintendo also revised down its sales and profit forecasts for the business year to March, blaming the strong yen and lack of hit software for its existing handheld DS and Wii home game consoles, as well as the late launch of the new product.

Shares of Nintendo were down 9.2 percent to 20,900 yen at 0100 GMT.

The new 3DS, which set gamers abuzz at the E3 gameshow earlier in the year with a display that can be used without special glasses, is seen as key to reviving Nintendo’s sagging sales.

But the company will not launch the new version of the DS until February 26 in Japan and March in the United States, by far the biggest market for the game machine maker. At 25,000 yen, the new model is priced substantially higher than the existing DS.

Many analysts had expected a 2011 launch for the United States, but were taken aback by the late Japan sales date.

“We had been expecting a November launch for Japan, so the news was a disappointment,” said Singapore-based analyst Atul Goyal of CLSA. “With a delayed product launch, the stock should be in a twilight zone, where it may not do much for the next five-to-six months.”

The delay, which Nintendo president Satoru Iwata blamed on inability to meet anticipated demand within the year, may put Nintendo at a disadvantage compared with rivals Sony Corp and Microsoft, whose motion-gaming peripherals, will be on the market in time for the year-end shopping season.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Michael Watson and Joseph Radford)