Nintendo Co. said Thursday its net profit plunged during the previous fiscal year due to a sharp rise in the value of the yen against the dollar.
The video game console and software maker said its profit sank 51 percent during the year ended March 31 to 33.19 billion yen from 67.27 billion yen a year earlier.
Nintendo said the yen's 12 percent jump against the dollar over the year forced it to report a special 67.8 billion yen loss on its foreign currency assets, denting its bottom line.
Nintendo keeps a large share of its foreign earnings in foreign markets, where it can take advantage of greater interest income than in Japan, where interest rates remain relatively low. Losses on these holdings hurt its profit.
"They were only paper losses. Without them, the earnings results were solid," said Yasuhiro Minagawa, a Nintendo spokesman.
Overall revenue climbed 2.1 percent during the period, led by strong sales of "Super Mario Advance 4" and "Donkey Kong Country," both titles for Nintendo's hand-held machine the Game Boy Advance.