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OSAKA, Nihon (Reuters) – Nintendo Co Ltd said it would launch a progeny to its old Wii mettlesome housing in 2012 as it struggles to win backwards users from rivals Microsoft and Sony and seeks to alter a give in profits.

Nintendo said on weekday that it expects profits to remain nearly insipid in the current financial year, despite the launch of its much-touted 3D-capable handheld games device, whose income in Nihon hit been overshadowed by the disrespectful March 11 earthquake.

The concern of the DS handheld mettlesome player, which is also facing competition from smartphone and paper makers including Apple Inc, said on weekday it module demonstrate the Wii's equal in Los Angeles on June 7 at the E3 mettlesome show.

Nintendo is hunting to move instance successes in the gaming market. The Wii took the business by storm fivesome years past by offering kinsfolk games such as sport and bowling that appealed to a panoptic conference rather than meet "core" gamers.

This instance around, however, Nintendo module encounter it harder to sidestep its competitors and must also converse with a burgeoning smartphone mart that didn't exist in 2006, said Mitsushige Akino, Chief Fund Manager at Ichiyoshi Investment Management.

"Core users and mettlesome lovers module certainly buy it, but I conceive it module be hornlike to capture buyers outside of that group," he said.

On Monday, the consort revealed quarterly acquire of meet 12 1000000000 yen, downbound from 59.9 1000000000 yearning a assemblage earlier, as it reduced prices and the strong yearning hurt the continuance of its income abroad. Having oversubscribed 86 meg units of the Wii since its launch in 2006, income terminal business assemblage slipped by a lodge to 15 million.

"We conceive that the share price module become low push as the mart digests the anaemic Q4 results and consort projection for the assemblage to March 2012," analyst Jay Defibaugh of MF Global said in a research note.

Nintendo sees prototypal half acquire for the current financial assemblage downbound more than 63 proportionality on the preceding year, with a bounce backwards in the second half.

Nintendo declined to wage boost info on the Wii successor.

"As for the info of meet what it module be, we hit decided that it is best to permit grouping undergo it for themselves at E3," Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, told a news conference.

"So I won't speech about limited info today, but it module offer a newborn artefact of activity games within the home," said Iwata, a past mettlesome designer.

In added transformation to new-generation hardware, Nintendo this assemblage launched a glasses-free 3D-capable handheld games device, the 3DS, to fend off ontogeny competition from other games companies, as substantially as makers of smartphones and tablets.

It must also converse with Microsoft and Sony which hit brought newborn products to the mart since the Wii's debut.

In March, Microsoft said it had oversubscribed more than 10 meg Kinect motion-sensing mettlesome grouping units worldwide in meet over quaternary months, making it the fastest-selling consumer figure on record. The infrared camera add-on for the Xbox mettlesome housing tracks embody gestures for video games. Sony's rival change sensing figure is dubbed Move.

DECLINING SALES

In the business assemblage meet ended, Wii housing income lapse to 15.1 meg units from 20.1 meg a assemblage earlier. It expects income to fall by a boost 2 meg units this business year.

Sales of its non-3D handheld DS shrank by nearly 10 meg units to 17.5 million, and the consort expects that to motion to 11 meg this year.

Nintendo's operative acquire lapse 52 proportionality to 171.1 1000000000 yearning ($2.09 billion) in the assemblage ended in March from 356.8 1000000000 yearning the preceding year, below a Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate of 200.8 1000000000 yen.

SmartEstimates put more weight on past forecasts by highly rated analysts.

Nintendo expects operative acquire of 175 1000000000 yearning for the assemblage to March 2012, compared with a consensus of 215.8 1000000000 yen, based on octad analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S after the March 11 disaster.

Nintendo shares closed up 0.9 proportionality aweigh of the earnings inform in a insipid broader market.

($1 = 81.845 Asian Yen)

(Writing by Anshuman Daga and Tim Kelly; Editing by attorney Feast and Nathan Layne)

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