Nintendo Of America Sees Rise In Sales
REDMOND
Dominance of the video-game industry by Nintendo of America, the Redmond-based subsidiary of Japan's Nintendo Co. Ltd., was demonstrated once again when Nintendo last week estimated its sales for 1991.
In an announcement unveiling Nintendo Co.'s earnings, the Japanese parent company said the U.S. subsidiary's sales in calendar 1991 should be $4.025 billion, an 18 percent increase over 1990.
At that level, Nintendo of America would have 86 percent of total video-game sales in the United States, estimated at $4.7 billion, according to a Nintendo spokesman.
Nintendo Co. said its own earnings, adjusted for a change in the date the company's fiscal year ends, increased 22 percent in the fiscal year ended March 31, 1991, from fiscal 1990. The company only releases consolidated figures, and no similar information was released for Nintendo of America.
On Sept. 1, 1989, the Japanese company changed it fiscal year-end from Aug. 31 to March 31. As a result, year-to-year financial comparisons were skewed because fiscal 1990 consisted of only seven months, compared with 12 in fiscal 1991.
Nintendo Co. said its consolidated net income for fiscal 1991 was $489 million, or $4.65 a share, compared with $234 million, or $2.22 a share, for the shorter 1990 period. Sales for 1991 were $3.34 billion, compared with 1990's $1.70 billion.