Regarding the Nintendo Switch business during the first half of this fiscal year (April through September 2022), each title released this period has sold well, with Splatoon 3 getting off to a good start with sales of 7.90 million units, as well as Nintendo Switch Sports at 6.15 million units, Mario Strikers: Battle League at 2.17 million units, and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 at 1.72 million units sold. In addition, we saw stable sales in titles released through the end of the previous fiscal years, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe selling 3.07million units (for cumulative sales of 48.41 million units) and Kirby and the Forgotten Land selling 2.61 million units (for cumulative sales of 5.27 million units). Sales of titles from other software publishers also continued to grow steadily, bringing the total number of million-seller titles during this period to 15, including titles from these other software publishers. As a result of these factors, total software sales grew by 1.6% year-on-year to 95.41 million units. On the other hand, hardware units sold decreased by 19.2% year-on-year to 6.68 million units, due to factors such as a shortage of semiconductor and other component supplies.

Turning to our digital business for the dedicated video game platform, Nintendo Switch downloadable versions of packaged software sold well, and Nintendo Switch Online sales also increased. In addition, sales of add-on content rose not only for Nintendo titles, but also for titles from other software publishers, along with the sales of download-only titles, helping push digital sales to187.8 billion yen, up 30.2% year-on-year.

Royalty income was stable, but income from smart-device content declined, with the result that overall sales in our mobile and IP related business totaled 23.5 billion yen, down 7.5% year-on-year.

In total, sales reached 656.9 billion yen, with overseas sales of 498.6 billion yen accounting for 75.9% of that total. Operating profit came to 220.3 billion yen. With the depreciation of the yen in foreign exchange markets, we recorded foreign exchange gains of 76.4billion yen, with the result that ordinary profit totaled 322.4 billion yen and profit attributable to owners of parent totaled 230.4 billion yen.

While there is a gradual improvement in semiconductor and other component supplies and a recovery trend in hardware manufacturing for Nintendo Switch, taking into consideration production and sales performances thus far, we have modified the Nintendo Switch hardware sales units forecast for the fiscal year. By continually working to front-load production and selecting appropriate transportation methods in preparation for the holiday season, we will work to deliver as many consoles as possible to consumers in every region of the world. As for software, we have the release of Bayonetta 3 in October, followed by Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet in November, Fire Emblem Engage in January 2023, and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe in February 2023. Other software publishers also plan to release a wide variety of compelling titles, and we will work to invigorate the platform with this continuous stream of new titles combined with the popularity of existing titles