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Nintendo has reported a 46.4 billion yen ($457 million) loss for the Japanese fiscal year ending March 31, as the company is finding it difficult to come to grasps with the lower than expected sale numbers for the Wii U.
Nintendo had previously hoped to sell at least 9 million Wii Us in the last fiscal year, but instead, sales have barely climbed over 2.7 million worldwide. A far cry from the early days of the Wii U's predecessor, the hugely popular Wii. In fact, the Wii U is doing worse than the previous poorest selling home console for the company, the GameCube.
In comparison, Sony's hugely popular PS4 consoles has already sold 7 million units in its first six month since being released in November last year - that's greater than the Wii U's lifetime sales figure, which stands at 6.2 million.
Nintendo's own financial statement did not hold back on blaming the Wii U for its current misfortunes.
"The Wii U hardware still has a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits owing mainly to its markdown in the United States and Europe," the financial statement read, "and unit sales of software, which has high profit margins, did not grow sufficiently."
Despite their Wii U woes, and a forecast of declining 3DS sales over the current fiscal year, Nintendo is still optimistically predicting a healthy operating profit by this time next year. Nintendo will be hoping upcoming Wii U games such as Mario kart 8 and a new Super Smash Bros. game will be the catalyst for improved hardware sales.
Nintendo had previously hoped to sell at least 9 million Wii Us in the last fiscal year, but instead, sales have barely climbed over 2.7 million worldwide. A far cry from the early days of the Wii U's predecessor, the hugely popular Wii. In fact, the Wii U is doing worse than the previous poorest selling home console for the company, the GameCube.
In comparison, Sony's hugely popular PS4 consoles has already sold 7 million units in its first six month since being released in November last year - that's greater than the Wii U's lifetime sales figure, which stands at 6.2 million.
Nintendo's own financial statement did not hold back on blaming the Wii U for its current misfortunes.
"The Wii U hardware still has a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits owing mainly to its markdown in the United States and Europe," the financial statement read, "and unit sales of software, which has high profit margins, did not grow sufficiently."
Despite their Wii U woes, and a forecast of declining 3DS sales over the current fiscal year, Nintendo is still optimistically predicting a healthy operating profit by this time next year. Nintendo will be hoping upcoming Wii U games such as Mario kart 8 and a new Super Smash Bros. game will be the catalyst for improved hardware sales.