In 2012, Nintendo launched the Wii U to a lot of excitement and stellar day one sales. After that, things went downhill fast. The company has tried to turn it around in 2013 with bundles and price drops, but it looks like it still wasn’t enough.
In its financial forecast for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2014, Nintendo says that it had hoped to sell 9 million Wii U units by March 31. Its forecast has now been drastically lowered to 2.8 million. If this turns out to be the case Nintendo will have sold 6.25 million Wii U units since its launch in late 2012.
Despite the Wii U not doing so hot, things are looking a lot better for the 3DS. That being said, Nintendo expects its handheld to not do as well as initially thought. It originally expected to sell 18 million units, but that number has now been decreased to 13.5 million units. The handheld is still seeing success in Japan, but sales have slumped in the North American and European markets.
The marked down forecasts for both the Wii U and 3DS have Nintendo slashing its expected annual revenue to $5.7 billion from an expected $8.8 billion. It also expected to make $527.2 million in profits, but that’s also been readjusted to $239.6 million in losses.
So, what does this all mean? Is Nintendo doomed? The company itself is fine as it’s sitting on a fat stack of cash left over from its Wii days. The real question now is whether or not Nintendo sticks with the Wii U, moves on to another hardware platform or just abandons the hardware market altogether. There are legitimate arguments to be had in support of all three, but it looks Nintendo is sticking with the Wii U for now.
[h/t: Kotaku] Image via Nintendo/YouTube