Santa won't be bringin you one for Xmas.

(Reuters) – Nintendo Co Ltd said on Wednesday the launch of its 3D-capable DS handheld game player will miss the busy year-end holiday shopping season, forcing Japan’s leading game machine maker to slash its full-year profit forecast by one-third.

Nintendo will launch the new version of the DS on February 26 in Japan and in March in the United States, by far the biggest market for the game machine maker.

The company trimmed its projection for overall DS sales for the year to March 31 to 23.5 million units from 30 million and lowered its estimate for Wii consoles to 17.5 million machines from 18 million.

“At first we thought it would be desirable to launch the 3DS within the year, so we made our forecasts on that basis. At this point it is clear that if we launch within the year, we will not be able to supply enough units,” Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told an analysts’ conference.

With sales of its DS and Wii fading, Nintendo is relying on the new 3D model to revive profits and help it fend of renewed competition from Sony Corp and Microsoft, whose motion-gaming peripherals will be on the market in time for year-end shoppers to buy.

[Full Article at Reuters.com]

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