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Cue up some AC/DC, because Nintendo is back in black for 2014 and finally has some profit to show. Thought not everything is as great as you might hope.
We’ve heard a lot about how Nintendo has floundered in the last few years, so here’s a bright spot- the company has posted a net income (for the year ending this past March 2015) of ¥41,843,000, which is up from the loss that they took last year. That figure was about half of the gain that was just announced, so they actually had a pretty nice turnaround.
Not everything was all rose though. Although the company raised its profits, both the Wii U and the 3DS missed their targeted sales numbers. Although that’s not all that surprising in the Wii U’s case, it’s more than a little bit so when talking about the handheld unit. You do have to conducer though, that Nintendo has pretty much just released the New 3DS, and that in the year leading up to that sales might have been hindered for the older unit just because of that impending launch. I know personally, if I was in the market for a handheld and I knew that the New 3DS was coming I’d have waited.
Also very interesting to note, is that while American and European sales had gains, Japanese support has wavered in a big way. The Wii U in particular, fell from 890 thousand units to just 530 thousand sold this past year. That’s a huge drop and not a great sign, especially from a territory that’s been a big supporter of the company.
Still though, Nintendo has managed to make some hay this past year using the biggest feather in its cap- software. Software sales were solid enough in the fiscal year to make up for all those losses on hardware, in a time period that saw the release of Pokemon ORAS, Mario Kart 8, Majora’s Mask 3D and more.
With hardware sales plunging against though, and software doing just fine, I’d say it’s almost time once again for those ‘3rd party’ rumors to start a-flowing. Don’t worry faithful, there’ll still be noting to them, but that won’t stop the rumor mill any.
Source: MCV
