Still made a $71.4 million net profit due to depreciation of the yen
Nintendo’s fiscal year 2013 report was just released today, and the details are… well… umm… they’re certainly something alright. Neither hot nor cold. Just… there.
For the year ending on March 31, 2013, Nintendo posted revenues of ¥635.4 billion (~$6.4 billion), down 1.9% from last year, and an operating loss of ¥36.4 billion ($~366 million), all thanks to the lackluster sales of the Wii U. But there is a silver lining due to favorable exchange rates, which actually sees Nintendo with a net profit of ¥7.1 billion (~$71.4 million), an improvement over last year’s shocking $434.5 million loss.
But the truly unfortunate — yet completely expected — figures come from pure hardware and software sales. Despite a forecast revision from 5.5 million to 4 million, the Wii U wasn’t even able to meet that, ending the year with a mere 3.45 million units sold. That means from January through March, only 390,000 consoles were sold worldwide. Likewise, the software target was reduced from 24 million to 16 million, yet only 13.42 million games were sold. Ouch.
The 3DS fared a bit better, selling 13.95 million units and 49.61 million copies of software, both increases over last year’s totals. But it too missed its hardware target of 15 million down from 17.5 million. Not to mention, the 3DS is now falling behind its older brother, the DS, which managed to sell 23.56 million units back during its third fiscal year.
Numbers for DS and Wii were also given. The Wii struggled to hit 3.98 million sales this year, while the DS performed even worse with 2.35 million. Not surprising considering that their successors are already out in the market, but clearly those old owners are not upgrading. Getting those folks to step up will be Nintendo’s prime directive for the new year.
Despite the rather miserable results, Nintendo is comfortable in predicting 9 million Wii U sales and 18 million 3DS sales by next year. The company even believes it can squeeze out another 2 million Wii sales! Unfortunately, no forecast for the DS was given, lending to the notion that its official retirement is just around the corner.
Let’s see what Satoru Iwata, SUPER CEO, can do!
Nintendo misses its fiscal forecasts as the Wii U struggles to sell [Gamasutra]
Nintendo FY13: $70M Net Income; WiiU 3.45M, NDS retires, 3DS/WiiU miss expectations [NeoGAF]
