Today Nintendo released its Q3 financial results for the months of October through December.
According to the report, the Wii U managed to move 1.91 million units during that time. Despite key releases the sales like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, it is struggling to move units of its troubled system. This is although a pretty huge improvement over the sales of both 2013 and 2014, as Nintendo was able to move almost as many consoles in a three-month period as it did in the nine-month period of April to December of those years. Sales for 2013 from April to December were 2.41 million, while in 2014 they were 3.03 million; a total of 9.2 million units were sold during its lifetime.
“We’ve made some progress in profit but in many ways we didn’t score perfectly,” chief executive Satoru Iwata told reporters at a briefing in Osaka. Iwata is hoping to steer Nintendo to its first annual operating profit in four years.
Mario Kart 8 has so far sold 4.77 million units worldwide since it released, while Super Smash Bros. achieved sales of 3.39 million units in a much shorter release window.
It pales in comparison to Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One in sales figures, though having a one year lead being launched in 2012 as against the other two that launched in 2013. PS4 has moved 18.5 million in two years and Microsoft hasn’t revealed a concrete number but has shipped close to 10 million units until December.
Sales for Wii U fell significantly during the nine-month period, with gamers in Europe and North America awaiting the release of the New Nintendo 3DS model also adding to the misery. In total, some 7 million 3DS units shipped worldwide during the three quarters, down from the 11.6 million sold during the same period last year.
The combined performance of the 3DS and Wii U, along with its software, is expected to pull Nintendo out of an annual loss for the first time since 2013. Total sales for the year are revised down slightly, by 7 per cent, to $4.7 billion, while profit expected to reach $505 million, compared to the $200 million loss last year.