TOKYO  — Nintendo, a Japanese video game company, announced on Tuesday that it will provide details regarding a Switch home console replacement before March 2025.

Nintendo did not provide any information regarding the announcement when releasing its financial results, including if it will only announce its plans for the replacement product or debut it during this fiscal year.

“Within this fiscal year, we plan to reveal details on the Nintendo Switch successor. Nintendo Switch was first unveiled in March 2015. Thus, it will have been more than nine years since then, according to a statement from Shuntaro Furukawa, president of the business.

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Nintendo To Announce Switch Successor In This Fiscal Year As Profits Rise

The fiscal year that concluded in March saw a 13% increase in earnings for Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. This was due to strong demand for Switch titles such as “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”

Nintendo increased its net profit from 432.7 billion yen to 490.6 billion yen ($3 billion) during the fiscal year that ended in March 2024. Sales increased 4% annually to 1.67 trillion yen ($11 billion), with almost 80% coming from outside of Japan.

Nintendo reports that in addition to “The Legend of Zelda,” which sold 20.6 million units worldwide during the fiscal year, “Super Mario Bros. Wonder” sold 13.4 million units, and “Pikmin 4” sold about 3.5 million units.

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Nintendo To Announce Switch Successor In This Fiscal Year As Profits Rise

The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s release a year ago also helped sales.

Additionally beneficial was the yen’s depreciation versus the dollar, which increases the value of Japanese exporters’ foreign earnings in yen, such as Nintendo. Over the last fiscal year, the U.S. dollar has averaged roughly 151 Japanese yen, up from 133 yen the year before.

Nintendo was less enthusiastic about its financial results for the fiscal year through March 2025, predicting net profit to drop to 300 billion yen ($1.9 billion). Nintendo did not provide quarterly data.

Nintendo has sold over 141 million Switch units, with 15.7 million of those sales occurring in the recently ended fiscal year.

Providing a consistent flow of entertaining games is essential because these sales tend to decrease steadily over time.

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Nintendo To Announce Switch Successor In This Fiscal Year As Profits Rise

This month, “Endless Ocean Luminous,” a virtual scuba diving experience that included whales, vibrant fish, and other aquatic species, went on sale. Next month, the plumber Mario’s sibling will appear in “Luigi’s Mansion 2,” which will go on sale.

Nintendo is also preparing a new movie for a global release in April 2026. It hopes to attract more fans to its property with the later this year debuts of Donkey Kong Country at Universal Studios Japan and a Nintendo museum in Kyoto.

SOURCE – (AP)

Due to restructuring and impairment losses, The Walt Disney Co. saw a deficit in its second quarter; nevertheless, adjusted profit exceeded forecasts, and the company’s streaming division made money. The corporation raised its forecast for the year since theme parks also performed well.

Disney announced on Tuesday that it expects its combined streaming businesses to be profitable in the fourth quarter and to be a significant future growth driver for the company, with further improvements in profitability in fiscal 2025. Disney acknowledged that it foresees its overall streaming business softening in the current quarter due to its platform in India, Disney+Hotstar.

Disney+ and Hulu are part of the direct-to-consumer division, which reported quarterly operating income of $47 million, up from a $587 million loss the previous year. Revenue reached $5.64 billion, up 13%.

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Disney’s Streaming Business Turns A Profit In First Financial Report Since Challenge To Iger

The second-quarter operating deficit for the combined streaming businesses—Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+—dropped to $18 million from $659 million, while revenue increased to $6.19 billion from $5.51 billion.

In the second quarter, core Disney+ subscribers increased by almost 6%.

However, Disney’s streaming business is improving despite its cable division losing ground. That segment’s sales decreased by 8% in the most recent quarter.

“Upon examining our organization holistically, it is evident that the transformation and expansion endeavors we initiated last year have persistently produced favorable outcomes,” Iger stated in a written statement.

During Disney’s conference call, Iger announced that the business will incorporate an ESPN tab into Disney+ by year-end, following suit with Hulu. This will provide live sports and studio content for U.S. users via the Disney+ app.

In February, ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery revealed their intentions to introduce a sports streaming service in the autumn that will feature content from all four major professional sports leagues and at least 15 other networks.

Iger added that the business will begin enforcing stricter measures against password sharing for its streaming service in select areas starting next month, with plans to go global in September.

Disney, like its competitors like Netflix, has high-quality streaming material, but Iger stated that the company’s current priority needs to be expanding its technological capabilities. These steps—including the password crackdown—are anticipated to increase revenue.

This is the first financial report since last month, when investors fiercely opposed activist investor Nelson Peltz’s attempts to win seats on the company board. They supported Iger’s efforts to revitalise the business following a difficult period.

While some Disney investors may have been hoping for more from the quarterly report, Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, noted that “the company has tilted its operation back to its core business model, which is more conservative by nature.”

Monteiro concentrated on the business’s attempts to profit from its streaming section.

“Amidst Hollywood’s massive strike period, the big surprise of the day came on the streaming front, which finally managed to bring profits – way ahead of predictions,” stated Monteiro. “This suggests that the more global, low-production-cost Netflix-like model is probably the best course of action for an organization that needs to reevaluate its overall growth expectations.”

Disney’s theme parks abroad recorded a 29% increase in revenue, while its domestic theme parks saw a 7% gain.

However, Disney admitted that the quarter’s higher theme park expenses resulted from inflation.

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Disney’s Streaming Business Turns A Profit In First Financial Report Since Challenge To Iger

The business reported that while visitors to Disneyland raised their spending due to higher ticket and hotel room prices, guests at Walt Disney World increased their spending due to higher ticket prices.

The November debut of World of Frozen, a portion of the park including attractions based on the well-known “Frozen” films, helped Hong Kong Disneyland overseas.

Like many other tourist spots, Disney is still used to post-pandemic visitation.

Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston stated on the call, “We are seeing some evidence of a global moderation from peak post-Covid travel, even though consumers are still traveling in record numbers and we are still seeing healthy demand.”

Disney lost $20 million for the quarter that ended on March 30, or one penny per share. In contrast, the company made $1.27 billion in profit a year prior, or 69 cents per share.

Charges for restructuring and impairment increased to $2.05 billion from $152 million during the same period last year.

After deducting charges and other things, adjusted earnings came in at $1.21 per share, well exceeding the $1.12 per share projected by Zacks Investment Research’s panel of experts.

Disney announced that it has revised its full-year adjusted profits per share growth forecast to 25% in light of its second-quarter results. Before, it had projected growth of at least 20%.

The Burbank, California-based company’s revenue increased to $22.08 billion from $21.82 billion in the previous year, but it fell short of $22.13 billion in Wall Street projections.

Disney didn’t release any major movie titles in the second quarter compared to the same period last year, which included the release of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which caused content sales and license revenue to drop by 40%. The continuous release of “Avatar: The Way of Water,” released in December 2022, also contributed to the outcomes from a year ago.

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Disney’s Streaming Business Turns A Profit In First Financial Report Since Challenge To Iger

Over 8% of the shares dropped during morning trade.

The Walt Disney Company reported in February that it was implementing “significant cost reductions,” in the first quarter of that year, it cut its selling, general, and other operations expenses by $500 million. In 2023, the corporation laid off thousands of workers.

In a state court battle over Walt Disney World’s future development after the Florida governor took over the theme park resort’s governance, friends of Governor Ron DeSantis and Disney came to a settlement deal in March.

Actors’ Equity Association, the union that represents character performers at Disneyland in California, said last month that they had submitted a petition to be recognized as a union.

SOURCE – (AP)

DETROIT — The company’s Autopilot semi-automatic driving technology is present in more than 2 million vehicles, and federal highway safety investigators want Tesla to explain how and why it developed the repair.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the United States has 20 crash reports after the recall remedy was distributed as an online software update in December, raising doubts about the recall’s effectiveness.

The question of whether Autopilot should be permitted to run on roadways other than limited access highways was also addressed by the recall update. Increased warnings to drivers on roads with intersections served as a remedy.

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US Seeks Information From Tesla On How It Developed And Verified Whether Autopilot Recall Worked

However, investigators said they were unable to distinguish between alerts to drivers to pay attention sent before the recall and following the installation of the revised software in a letter to Tesla that was published on the agency’s website on Tuesday. The agency stated that it would assess the effectiveness of driver warnings, particularly in cases where a driver-monitoring camera is obscured.

The government focused on how Tesla employed human behavior to test the efficacy of the recall after receiving voluminous information on the company’s development of the patch.

The letter, according to Phil Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who specializes in automated driving safety, indicates that the recall was largely ineffective in resolving Autopilot issues and was instead an attempt to appease the NHTSA, which had requested the recall following more than two years of research.

Everyone watching can tell that Tesla attempted to take the least amount of action to see what they could get away with, according to Koopman. “And NHTSA needs to act quickly to prevent other automakers from releasing subpar solutions.”

Safety advocates have long feared that Autopilot was not intended for use on roads other than limited-access highways, despite the fact that it can keep a vehicle in its lane and at a safe distance from objects in front of it.

The NHTSA is reacting to lawmakers’ criticism for what they see as a lack of action on autonomous vehicles, according to Missy Cummings, a professor of engineering and computing at George Mason University and expert on automated vehicles.

“The feedback loop is functioning, despite how clumsy our government is,” Cummings stated. “I believe the leadership of the NHTSA is now persuaded that this is an issue.”

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US Seeks Information From Tesla On How It Developed And Verified Whether Autopilot Recall Worked

In an 18-page letter, the NHTSA questions Tesla on how it applied human behavior science to Autopilot’s development and how important it is to include human factors.

Additionally, it requests that Tesla list all positions involving the assessment of human behavior along with the credentials of the employees. Additionally, it queries Tesla on the status of the positions.

The Associated Press contacted Tesla early on Tuesday to inquire about the letter.

Tesla is firing about 14,000 employees, or 10% of the company, as part of a cost-cutting measure to address declining worldwide sales.

Cummings expressed her suspicion that Elon Musk, the CEO, would have fired anyone who possessed knowledge of human behavior, a critical ability required to implement partially automated systems like Autopilot, which are incapable of operating on their own and necessitate human intervention at all times.

“You better have someone on your team that knows what they are doing in that sector if you’re going to have a technology that depends upon human interaction,” she stated.

According to Cummings, her research indicates that the human brain is left with limited functions once a driving system takes over human steering. Many drivers tend to check out and rely too much on the system.

She stated, “You can be a million miles away in your head, you can have your eyes on the road, and you can have your head fixed in one position.” “You won’t be made to pay attention by all the driver monitoring technologies in the world.”

The NHTSA also requests information from Tesla in its letter regarding how the recall remedy resolves driver misunderstanding regarding whether Autopilot has been turned off if they apply force to the steering wheel. In the past, drivers might not have realized immediately that they needed to take control of the vehicle if Autopilot had been disabled.

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US Seeks Information From Tesla On How It Developed And Verified Whether Autopilot Recall Worked

A feature that provides a “more pronounced slowdown” to notify drivers when Autopilot has been turned off was added to the recall. However, drivers must manually activate the function; it is not done automatically by the recall remedy. Investigators questioned how many motorists have made that move.

Telsa is requesting NHTSA. “What do you mean that even though you have a cure, it never turns on?” stated Koopman.

According to him, the letter indicates that the NHTSA is investigating whether Tesla conducted tests to ensure the changes were effective. “After examining the solution, I found it difficult to accept that numerous analyses have demonstrated that these will enhance safety,” Koopman stated.

According to the agency, Tesla also released safety improvements following the recall patch to lessen hydroplaning-related crashes and collisions in high-speed turn lanes. The NHTSA declared that it would investigate Tesla’s decision to omit the changes from the initial recall.

According to safety experts, NHTSA may pursue additional recall remedies, impose restrictions on the Autopilot operating range, or even order Tesla to disable the technology until it is corrected.

In 2021, the NHTSA launched its Autopilot investigation in response to 11 instances of Teslas hitting parked emergency vehicles while operating on Autopilot. The NHTSA stated in documents outlining the reasons for the investigation’s termination owing to the recall that it eventually discovered 467 Autopilot-related collisions that resulted in 54 injuries and 14 fatalities.

SOURCE – (AP)