Nintendo ended 2012 with a bit of a whimper, earning 2.4 percent less than 2011. So what does that mean for the company that brought us Mario and Zelda this year?
Nintendo’s sales from 2012 may not have been as high as 2011 but they managed to turn a profit of 14.5 billion yen. The saving grace for Nintendo’s profits was the Nintendo 3DS, which I have found to be Nintendo’s strongest device, after the 64 of course. The 3DS pulled in 12.7 million unit sales last year, 1.3 more than the previous year. The Wii U was a huge let down for Nintendo, and their fans it appears, as it only sold 3 million units since November. However, the Wii managed to sell 3.2 million consoles and could have sold more but Nintendo could not meet the demand brought on my customers. This seems to be an ongoing occurrence with the Wii since its release in 2006.
Sales with the Wii U have not been following in that of their predecessor, the Wii. Though they aren’t selling as quickly or as much, the Wii U can be found on shelves all over. The slow performance of the Wii U might be to blame for having sold only 11.7 million consoles, compared to the Wii’s 17 million.
Even the Wii and DS saw sales dwindle during the last nine months of last year. Wii only managed to sell 3.5 million consoles, which is way under its 9 million during 2011. The DS too sold very poorly with having sold only 2.2 million , compared to 4.6 million.
With all this sales negativity, Nintendo decided to change its outlook for the upcoming fiscal year. Due to a “lower-than-expected sales outlook based on sales performance in the year-end sales season and afterward.” Nintendo has dropped its revenue from 810 billion yen to 670 billion yen.
However, Nintendo does believe they can pull themselves up the green pipe from last year and have 2013 become a very good year for them. With games like Mario Kart, Pikmin 3, and the HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Nintendo might be looking at a profitable year.
