There’s some mixed news in Nintendo’s latest quarterly financial report, covering the period from April to June of this year, where there are a handful of encouraging signs but the bottom line remains that Nintendo are still unable to break a profit.
The high points are that Mario Kart 8 did incredibly well, pushing 2.82 million copies in a little over a month on sale, and will no doubt have pushed on from there over July. The Wii U also did fairly well, with 510,000 consoles sold, taking the install base to 6.68 million consoles.
It’s undermined somewhat by the fact that a marquee release like Mario Kart was unable to seriously spur on new console sales, with over 80% of copies sold going to existing customers, and just how large a slice of the 4.39 million in software sales were made up by that game. The 3DS, meanwhile, sold 820,000 new consoles and pushed 8.57m units of software.
What this means is that while Nintendo took 74.7bn yen ($731m or £432m), they still saw an overall loss of 9.9bn yen ($97m or £57m).
Nintendo do have hopes for a good end to the year, though, with Super Smash Bros. arriving on both 3DS and Wii U sure to push more software and hardware sales, while there are fresh Pokémon games in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Some key third party partnerships will also come to fruition on the Wii U, as Hyrule Warriors and Bayonetta 2 are set to launch before the end of 2014, and there’s the launch of the Amiibo character models.
But, in a spot of excellent timing from Blair, who wrote a little piece about Yoshi’s Woolly World and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker to get you all curious about Nintendo’s dalliance with sidekicks, Eurogamer report that Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker will be delayed in Europe until 2015 – though other regions seem to be unaffected. Good one, Blair!
tactical20
Dear Nintendo, drop the price a bit (or do a version with normal controllers) and I’ll be all over a WiiU and will buy all your first party games. Thx!
Dominic Leighton
The gamepad though is one of the absolute highlights of the console. Mine seems to mostly live in my bedroom and I just play everything on the pad like a big comfy handheld!
Kennykazey
Dude, the gamepad IS the Wii U. Handheld everything! Asymmetric play!
It’s like asking Nissan to sell their GTR with a three-cylinder, economic engine and at a lower price, just because you don’t want it for what it is.
(I’ll admit Nintendo hasn’t fully delivered on the promise, but you can buy a Wii U with Mario Kart, add in two Pro Controllers and a Wiimote and still be under the asking price for a PS4)
tactical20
Ok, but I just wanna play SNES Mario, in HD, on my massive TV. I basically need left/right, jump & dash. I’m not after gimmicks, just the few Nintendo games I loved from my youth.
Also, Nissan DO offer alternatives to their GTR?!
Kennykazey
Then buy an old Wii, it has a better Virtual Console offering and support component/hdmi output. Then you can build up a set of Wiimotes to carry over to your eventual U.
And there’s no eco-friendly GTR, because that would be missing the point…. There’s only increasingly hardcore track-day specials.
tactical20
The old Wii isn’t HD and doesn’t have Mario Kart 8, or Windwaker HD, or Pikmin 3, etc.. Admittedly, I don’t know much about cars, but my point is that Nissan offer a whole range of vehicles, with different specs and different prices.
Dominic Leighton
Hopefully that Christmas period will do well for them. I know plenty of people who are still holding off but will likely jump in when both Smash Bros and Mario Kart are available.
Tuffcub
That’s some damn expensive toilets.