For the first time in forever (four years, specifically), Nintendo has ended its fiscal year reporting a profit. According to the company, it made 41.8 billion yen ($350 million), which exceeded its original forecast of 30 billion yen ($251 million).
While the Wii U is still very much behind its console competition, the company cited the lower cost of sales as a reason for the sudden return to black. Let’s take a look at some of the hardware/software sales from this year:
· 3DS sales are down 28 %, from 12.24 million units sold in the previous year, to 8.73 million this year.
· Wii U sales are up 24 %, from 2.72 million in the previous year to 3.38 million this year.
· 3DS hardware lifetime sales are 52.06 million units, and software, 225.66 million units. 3DS has a hardware/software tie ratio of 4.33.
· Wii U hardware lifetime sales are 9.54 million units, and software, 56.68 million units. Wii U has a hardware/software tie ratio of 5.94.
In their report, Nintendo noted that 3DS sales haven’t grown as they expected, but that games like Super Smash Bros for 3DS still managed to sell 6 million copies, and Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire almost sold 10 million copies combined. No mention of Amiibo sales, although Nintendo will hold an investors meeting tomorrow.
As for next year, the company noted that the future of their consoles is in good hands. They expect strong sales from 3DS games Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, Rhythm Heaven, Fire Emblem If, along with many others. As for the Wii U, games like Yoshi’s Wooly World, Splatoon, and Mario Maker give Nintendo some optimism that the Wii U is still on the way up. Nintendo forecasted the Wii U to sell around 3.4 million consoles, with the 3DS most likely to fall from 8.7 million this year to 7.6 million in the coming year.
Those are pretty realistic expectations from the house that Mario built, but for now let’s just rejoice in the fact that Nintendo is finally back to making money.
