Nintendo sales numbers for the fiscal year 2013 are in, and even with lowered projections it appears the company has posted a substantial loss. What's more, the company has drastically lowered its console sales expectations for the upcoming year by about 60 percent.
Back in January, Nintendo altered its Wii U unit sales projections for the year from 9 million to 2.8 million in response to slumping retail sales around the globe. They also drastically altered net sales projections from a profit of $530 million to a loss of $240 million in response.
With the numbers now official, Nintendo reports that Wii U unit sales came in at 2.72 million and net sales resulted in a loss of about $229 million. That's not too far off from either of the company's reduced projections, but is still much lower than they were hoping for when the fiscal year began.
Nintendo also revealed that the Wii U is up to 6.17 million in total units sold, which is obviously a much lower tally than expected when the console was first announced. 3DS unit sales are doing better, however, with 12.24 million units sold in the last fiscal year (43.3 million total).
With the Wii U clearly underperforming, even with lowered expectations, Nintendo has projected a much more conservative 3.6 million Wii U units will be sold in the oncoming fiscal year. That's still an improvement over the 2.7M sold in the last 12 months, but is far less than Nintendo likely hoped to sell, especially with the PS4 and Xbox One now on the market and doing very well.
Even as Nintendo prepares for a year that will include the release of Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. (Wii U and 3DS), and the unveiling of a new Zelda, it appears the company is still in some pretty dire straits. Stock prices are falling and rather than respond with business moves that instill confidence Nintendo announced an investment in health, which has led to even more concern regarding the company's future in the console space. Handheld sales, on the other hand, have seemingly swung back in Nintendo's favor after a bumpy launch for the 3DS.
There was the hope that, with more first party titles on the market and a price cut, Nintendo would be able to turn things around with the Wii U much like they did with the 3DS, but now even that doesn't seem like the answer. Instead, it's hard to imagine Nintendo will be able to course correct on the home console front without moving past the Wii U.
What do you think will help turn things around for the Wii U? What would you get you interested in purchasing the console?
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Source: Joystiq
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