Wii U Sales Continue To Fall, But Nintendo Still Posts Quarterly Profit
Nintendo published its first quarter financials report for fiscal year 2014 early Wednesday morning. The company managed to rake in a profit for its first quarter, but it certainly wasn’t boosted by sales of the Wii U – not by a long shot.
In the report, Nintendo confirmed a ¥81.5 billion sales figure, and ¥8.6 billion in profit. 63.7 percent of the company’s net sales came from overseas markets. While the $81.5 billion sales figure is down over the previous quarter, the company’s operating dropped by nearly half to ¥4.924 billion.
This dramatic drop in operating loss is attributed to a greater push in driving sales of the Nintendo 3DS overseas, as well as the company’s decision to back out of E3 and instead make its own announcements through Nintendo Direct.
Nintendo has consistently struggled to drive sales of its Wii U console, which launched worldwide late last year, and that hasn’t improved over the previous quarter. In fact, sales of the Wii U hit a new low with only roughly 160,000 sold worldwide in its first quarter.
3.61 million Wii U consoles have been sold to date.
The Nintendo 3DS, on the other hand, is performing quite well for Nintendo. The handheld has managed to hold the top spot for best-selling gaming hardware for a couple of months now, and Nintendo says that 1.4 million 3DS units were sold in the quarter ending June 30.
Nintendo attributes the success of the Nintendo 3DS due to popular software titles such as Animal Crossing: New Leaf (1.5 million), and Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon (1.43 million). Tomodatchi Collection, a digital title released on the 3DS in Japan this past April, has already managed to move 1.39 million units. Donkey Kong Country 3D, the company said, is also performing very well locally and abroad.
Things may look grim for the Wii U right now, but the company remains dedicated to push out new first-party IP, and continue to try and court third-party developers to expand the Wii U’s software library.
