Nintendo’s quarterly results are out (via WSJ), and the company saw disappointing sales of both its hardware platforms, with the Wii U managing to triple sales but still only achieving 510,000 units shipped overall, and the Nintendo 3DS dropping below a million units moved with a 41 percent decline in sales year-over-year.
The release of Mario Kart 8 still managed to buoy the company’s fortunes during the quarter, as indicated by the tripling of Wii U sales vs. this time last year, but the fact that even tripling hardware shipments for the company’s current home console only brought sales up to half a million consoles isn’t good news.
The company’s overall operating loss of 9.47 billion yen (roughly $93 million U.S.) means there will be a lot of pressure on Nintendo’s holiday quarter to impress and help the company make up its sales targets. To that end, it’s launching a score of games unveiled at E3 featuring popular franchise material and characters. Nintendo’s foray into Amiibo, its toy-based game integration system similar to Disney’s Infinity series, could help it make up some ground, but a real help would be price cuts on premium hardware like the Wii U and 3DS.
Nintendo has remained reluctant to move into mobile software sales for other peoples’ platforms, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to see what else they could do to shore up their failing fortunes as their earnings slump extends. I’m definitely rooting for Pokemon on the iPhone, so hopefully Nintendo wises up sooner rather than later.
IMAGE BY Nintendo
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