Nintendo Falls Short Of Wii U and 3DS Sales Goals, Ends Fiscal Year With A $229 Million Loss
Thank you Nintendo, but your profits are in another castle. Such is the paraphrased message Nintendo's accounting team had to deliver after going over the numbers for Nintendo's fiscal year ended March 31, 2014. Sales for the year totaled 571.7 million yen (around $5.6 billion), down from a revised forecast of 590 million yen (~$5.8 billion). Back in April of last year, Nintendo had optimistically forecast sales of around 915 million yen (~$9 billion).
The end result is that Nintendo posted a net loss of 23.2 million yen, which works out to around $229 million in U.S. currency. On the bright side, Nintendo had previously forecast a net loss of more than $245 million, though there's not much to celebrate when you look at the past three years and see a $1.18 billion loss.
Nintendo blamed its poor performance on lower than expected Wii U and 3DS console sales.
"The net sales were lower than expected due to the fact that the sales units of the Nintendo 3DS hardware, and the Wii U hardware and software did not reach their expected levels," Nintendo said in a statement. "The operating loss increased from the forecast due to the increase in inventory write-down and research and development expenses compared with the forecasts in addition to the decrease of net sales."
Despite continued optimism from Nintendo, there lies a tough road ahead. The Wii U is no longer the only next-generation game console on the market -- it's now facing competition from Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One systems, both of which launched in November of last year. Furthermore, Nintendo recently said it doesn't have any plans of releasing new hardware at this year's E3 convention, instead choosing to rely on new games like Mario Kart 8 to dig the company out of a hole.
Thumbnail Image Source: Flickr (bcchardware)
The end result is that Nintendo posted a net loss of 23.2 million yen, which works out to around $229 million in U.S. currency. On the bright side, Nintendo had previously forecast a net loss of more than $245 million, though there's not much to celebrate when you look at the past three years and see a $1.18 billion loss.
Nintendo blamed its poor performance on lower than expected Wii U and 3DS console sales.
"The net sales were lower than expected due to the fact that the sales units of the Nintendo 3DS hardware, and the Wii U hardware and software did not reach their expected levels," Nintendo said in a statement. "The operating loss increased from the forecast due to the increase in inventory write-down and research and development expenses compared with the forecasts in addition to the decrease of net sales."
Despite continued optimism from Nintendo, there lies a tough road ahead. The Wii U is no longer the only next-generation game console on the market -- it's now facing competition from Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One systems, both of which launched in November of last year. Furthermore, Nintendo recently said it doesn't have any plans of releasing new hardware at this year's E3 convention, instead choosing to rely on new games like Mario Kart 8 to dig the company out of a hole.
Thumbnail Image Source: Flickr (bcchardware)
