Wii U Sales Goal Slashed by Nintendo After Poor Launch; 3DS Going Strong
Nintendo announced its earnings on Wednesday with plans to slash its sales target for the new Wii U by 27 percent after its recent poor holiday launch.
It appears that the company had a rough end to 2012, and the situation might become a bit more difficult in the coming months.
The earnings report was released for the Japanese game maker that encompassed the nine months until December 31. During that period, Nintendo generated around $6 billion in revenue, dropping 2.4 percent compared with the same period in 2011.
Nintendo had set a goal of selling 5.5 million units through March, the end of its fiscal year, but now aims for 4 million.
The Wii U turned out to be a bit of a disappointment for Nintendo, selling only 3 million units since its launch in November, according to CNET. During the same period on store shelves, sales for the original Wii were 3.2 million and would have been higher if Nintendo's production efforts could have kept up with the massive demand.
The Wii U was Nintendo's first new home videogame console in six years. The machine was launched with its new controller equipped with a six-inch touch-screen display that would enable a new type of game play and counter the industry shift to games played on smartphones.
It was not all bad news for the gaming company.
The Nintendo 3DS handheld game player was the highlight of the company's financials during the period, tallying 12.7 million unit sales, up from the 11.4 million sold a year earlier.
The company was able also able to return 14.54 billion in yen as profit in the first nine months thanks in part to the 3DS, according to Forbes.
While the Wii U may have had a poor sales results recently the demand may increase with the new games expected to come out this year that include new series games such as Mario Kart, Super Mario, and Legend of Zelda.
