Tokyo: Shares in Japanese videogame giant Nintendo plunged as much as 10 percent in Tokyo on Thursday morning, weighing on the Nikkei index, after saying it would delay the rollout of a smartphone game seen as crucial to its future.
The Kyoto-based firm's new president Tatsumi Kimishima said it needed more time to "boost the quality" of its first smartphone offering, called Miitomo, and would not launch it until March -- after initially aiming for the end of this year.
Soon after the announcement Nintendo's stock price plunged 10 percent before recovering marginally to sit 8.56 percent lower at 21,040 yen by lunch.
Shares in mobile gaming company DeNA, which Nintendo developed the game with, plummeted nearly 17 percent to 2,030 yen.
Nintendo bought a stake in Tokyo-based DeNA as part of a deal to develop smartphone games based on its host of popular characters including Super Mario and Donkey Kong. Nintendo shares soared more than 20 percent on the day the deal was announced.
The delay in releasing Miitomo will add to uncertainty that has swirled around the company since its chief executive Satoru Iwata, a leading figure in the videogame industry, died of cancer at the age of 55 in the summer.
Iwata oversaw the success of Nintendo's Wii console and a surge in revenue before smartphone games started eating away at its success.
He had long resisted a move away from its consoles-only policy, but acknowledged last year the firm had little choice to but to move into new markets.
Thursday's announcement comes a day after Nintendo announced a 20 percent drop in net profit in April-September.
The Nikkei ended the morning session marginally lower, dropping 17.18 points to 18,885.84. The Topix index of all first-section shares fell 0.20 percent, or 3.15 points, to 1,544.04.
The Nikkei had opened up 0.76 percent, tracking Wall Street after the Federal Reserve held off an interest rate hike and upgraded its US economic outlook.
"It was the best statement we could've had," Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, told Bloomberg News. "The outlook on the economy is good, but the Fed has refrained from raising rates for now."
But it also hinted at a possible December rate hike, confounding expectations it would delay until early 2016.
The news lifted the dollar in US trade to 121.09 yen from 120.40 yen earlier in Asia. But in Japanese morning exchanges it bought 120.71 yen.
Dealers are also keeping tabs on a busy day for Japanese earnings, with Sony and Panasonic among a slew of firms reporting later Thursday.
Before markets opened, fresh data showed Japan's factory output unexpectedly rebounded in September, tempering expectations of more central bank stimulus.
The BoJ holds a one-day policy meeting on Friday.
Toyota fell 1.59 percent to 7,430 yen, banking giant Mitsubishi UFJ was down 0.75 percent at 777.4 yen, mobile carrier SoftBank rose 1.05 percent to 6,851 yen and factory robotics maker Fanuc climbed 1.68 percent to 21,215 yen.
AFP
