Nintendo is lowering its expectation for its new WiiU console. As Martin Gaston for Gamespot reports on Jan. 30, “lower than expected sales of the Wii U have caused Nintendo to cut sales forecasts of the fledgling console by 27 percent for its current financial year, down to 4 million units sold from its initial expectation of 5.5 million.”
And not only has Nintendo slashed its sales expectations for the WiiU—it has done the same for the Wii, the 3DS, and the original DS. 3DS sales alone are “expected to reach 15 million by the end of the year.”
Nintendo expects to make roughly ¥14 billion ($2.2 billion) by the current financial year’s end (ends in March 2013). This can be compared to last year’s gain of ¥43 billion ($6.9 billion).
“The company also expects to suffer a loss on its operating income,” Gaston writes, “but expects an overall profit thanks to an advantageous exchange rate due to the currently weak yen.”
Since the new console’s launch in Nov. 2012, 3.06 million WiiU consoles and 11.69 WiiU games have been sold worldwide. Divided between countries, 1.32 million games were sold in the US, 900,000 in Europe, and 830,000 in Japan. Out of these numbers, the most popular WiiU games (“perhaps unsurprisingly,” writes Gaston) were “Nintendo Land” and “New Super Mario Bros. U”, with 2.33 million and 2.01 million units, respectively.
Nintendo is making strides, though. Their new “Pokemon Black 2” and “Pokemon White 2” have taken 7.63 units sold worldwide, and recently they announced “Pokemon X” and “Y” for October 2013 releases (these will be the first 3D Pokemon games). Also, Nintendo announced a new “Legend of Zelda” title last week, and a new addition to the 3D “Mario” titles.
For more information, check out Martin Gaston’s article on Gamespot.
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