The game console industry, which not so long back was considered to have withstood the blows of recession, now appears to be in dire straits - what with the industry leader Nintendo Co. finding it an uphill task to entice new customers, and thus dealing with plunging profits!

In its recent report posted Thursday, Nintendo - the Kyoto, Japan-based maker of the popular console Wii - has reported that its profit for the quarter ended June 30 tumbled as much as 60 percent to $442.8 million, vis-à-vis the same quarter year-before profit of $1.1 billion.

A large chunk of the profit drop for the quarter was contributed by the weakened sales of the Nintendo Wii console - which fell a whopping 57 percent. In the most-recent quarter the sales of the console stood at 2.23 million, as against the last year figures of 5.17 million.

With reference to the rather 'tough' year-on-year comparisons pertaining to Wii sales, analysts opine that the apparently dramatic plunge in the game console's sales has essentially resulted from the fact that the holiday shopping season last year saw noteworthy sales of new game titles like Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit, which have now become 'old.'

Saying that the casual gamers are probably "getting bored," industry analyst Satoru Kikuchi said: "Nintendo needs to keep their attention with new software, but that hasn't happened!"