DailyTech - Nintendo Profitable Again, Cuts Wii U/3DS Sales Targets

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Gadgets Nintendo Profitable Again, Cuts Wii U/3DS Sales Targets
Tiffany Kaiser - January 30, 2013 3:06 PM

24 comment(s) - last by UrQuan3.. on Feb 4 at 10:53 AM

(Source: gawkerassets.com)

Wii U sales goals were reduced by 27 percent

While Nintendo managed to be profitable again in the first nine months of the fiscal year, it wasn't able to hit sales targets with its latest console, the Wii U.

For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Nintendo reported a net profit of 14.54 billion yen ($160 million USD) compared to a loss of 48.35 billion yen in the year-ago period. Revenue dropped 2.4 percent to 543.03 billion yen for the April to December 2012 period.

Profit was driven upward mainly due to lower production costs for its Nintendo 3DS handheld and a weaker yen.

For the three month quarter ending in December, Nintendo had sold 3.06 million Wii U consoles. It had previously forecasted sales of 5.5 million by March 2013, but has cut those predictions down to 4 million. It also cut Wii U software expectations by one-third to 16 million units.

Earlier this month, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said that the Wii U sales are "not bad," but also mentioned that it isn't flying off of store shelves as quickly as the original Wii (mainly due to problems like the popularity of mobile devices for gaming and the fact that this is the first time Nintendo has released two versions of a console at once).

The Wii U launched November 18, 2012. The Basic Set ($299.99) features 8 GB HDD, a Wii U Pad controller and it in comes in white. The Deluxe model ($349.99), on the other hand, offers 32 GB HDD, a Wii U Pad controller, power cradles for the Wii U Pad, an HDMI cable and it comes in black.

Nintendo also reduced sales expectations for its 3DS, from 17.5 million to 15 million for the fiscal year. Nintendo originally sought 18.5 million earlier in the year.

Looking forward, Nintendo cut its sales forecast by 17 percent to 670 billion yen ($7.4 billion USD) for the fiscal year to March 2013. It predicts an operating loss of 20 billion yen from an earlier projection of 20 billion yen profit.

Source: Nintendo

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It's just Wii

By StanO360 on 1/30/2013 5:22:10 PM , Rating: 2

being exposed for what it really was, just a mediocre system, that while "cheap" was actually expensive. I know so many people that own a Wii that never use them. We were on the verge of buying one instead of a 360 many years ago (the Wii was out of stock!), I'm glad we didn't!

Too many people are going to say "I didn't play with the first one, why buy a second?".

RE: It's just Wii

By augiem on 1/30/2013 7:37:06 PM , Rating: 2

The reason I never bought a Wii was the magic wand control system. I just did not find it compelling at all. I would have bought it for the Metroid and Zelda games alone, but they too were designed for the Wiimote... yecch. At least Nintendo seems to be at least partially supporting the traditional gaming route with the new controller. It looks WAY better than the Wii version. But I fear the first party games will make such heavy use of the tablet that they won't be playable on the classic controller, or at least they won't be designed for it from the ground up. Sad. I don't want gimmicks, I just want fun, and to me that requires solid control.

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RE: It's just Wii

By Rukkian on 1/31/2013 12:01:29 PM , Rating: 2

I was leery about the tablet as well, and was on the fence about whether to let my kids get one, but since they saved their own money for it, we let them (11 and 9 yo boys). The tablet actually is pretty nice to play in on the games you use it, and regular controls (dual analogue sticks, shoulder buttons etc are well placed. I like the new pro conrtoller as well, and being able to use numerous different contol options is nice.

Zombie U is pretty good and the tablet actually adds a new element to the gameplay. Nintendo land is a pretty fun game to play with the family as well.

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RE: It's just Wii

By TakinYourPoints on 2/1/2013 5:24:42 AM , Rating: 2

Definitely. ZombiU in particular is very good, it owes a lot to Demon Souls/Dark Souls in gameplay and difficulty.

Hard game club!

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RE: It's just Wii

By UrQuan3 on 2/4/2013 10:53:00 AM , Rating: 2

I too was going to play wait and see. Then a group of us were up till 2am knocking off orcs in Nintendoland and I set off to buy one. I wonder if the 3 million sold number was similar to the number of 32GB models they made (the black one). The weeks after Christmas, everyone had 10-20 white Wii-U's in stock, but it took me over a week to find a black one.

I do hope they follow through on the tablet. The two joysticks plus touchscreen have fighter/mech cocpit written all over it.

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