Nintendo’s Annual Sale Figures Indicate A Loss
As most of you already know, Nintendo’s recent financial figures reported an annual loss of up to 23.2 billion yen (£135m), compared to a 7.1 billion yen (£41m) the previous year. Now, from the data, it seems that the main reason this happened is due to poor hardware sales.
The company has sold 6.17 million Wii U consoles since the system’s launch in November 2012 and 2.72 million for the last fiscal year, slightly down from its projection of 2.8 million, and 310,000 for the quarter. This was after the fact that Wii U titles Super Mario 3D World, New Super Mario Bros. U and New Super Luigi U all sold more than a million units, coming at around an impressive 18m in total, which was not far from the optimal projection of 19m.
Furthermore, 3DS continued to perform on an acceptable pace, selling 12 million units globally and shifting 67 million units of software, of which Pokeman X and Y was the strongest contributor. On the other hand, the new addition to the family, 2DS reached the sale of 2 million last fiscal year, and the Wii continued to show its strength at an impressive 1.22 million in hardware sales and managing to shift 20 million units in software.
For the upcoming Fiscal year, Nintendo plans to further emphasize the Wii U’s selling points, especially the dynamic features the innovative controllers offer. The company will also aim to promote Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. as the two main juggernauts this year, and will add DS Virtual Console titles to the Wii U lineup.
In my opinion, this has been a thoroughly challenging fiscal year for Nintendo, especially due to the Wii U that even caused them to re-acquire $1.2 Billion worth of stock after a weak Christmas performance last year. Earlier this year, Iwata was quoted as saying “I’m concentrating my mind on how to rebuild Nintendo rather than how I would take responsibility when things don’t work out,”. After which he promised he’d take a salary cut beginning from February and lasting till June. So you can clearly see that Nintendo is trying its best to rebound.
One strategy that most people seem to believe will work is, majorly cutting the stock price of Wii U’s and focusing solely on the software side of things instead. It is definitely interesting, but kind of risky considering their current state. I am not saying it won’t work, but the rebound period will be longer if they manage to put this in effect. Also, unless Nintendo really persuades third-party developers to take the Wii U more seriously, the software sales might not be that extraordinary. Anyways, all the best to Nintendo, where hopefully things will iron out soon.