Struggling Wii U hurts Nintendo in latest financial reports

Nintendo has released its second quarter financial earning report and the news is a real mixed bag and aren’t as good as the quarter before it. Nintendo’s financial year starts in April, this report covers the last six months of the financial year, both Q1 and Q2 which is April 1st to the 30th of September.

Nintendo’s total opening loss in both quarters has been reported at ¥23.26 billion with a net profit of ¥600 million. This is an improvement over last year but still an overall loss in total sales.

Nintendo has announced the latest sales for the Wii U, the good news is that Wii U sale are up – but far from good. Nintendo sold approximately 300,000 in the second quarter, up from a disaster amount of 160,000 in the first. To put this into perspective, the original Wii sold 470,000 (10,000 more) consoles in this same period, now you know why they’ve stopped making them.

There are now 3.91 million Wii U consoles total worldwide and Nintendo believe it will still sell 9 million before March 31st 2014. This prediction remains unchanged, it’s a hefty number considering the pace of sales so far.

Nintendo is still losing money on each Wii U it sells and it is affecting Nintendo’s bottom line. A price drop in Europe and American has helped either with the profit. Advertising the Wii U and ‘research and development’ on the console have also cost the company money as well.

Things are a little better on the Nintendo 3DS side of the fence. 3.89 million units were sold in the first six months of the year with most of those coming in the second quarter. The 3DS is now at 34.98 million units sold, 10.66 million of those Nintendo 3DS XL.

This financial period does not include the release of the Nintendo 2DS, Pokemon X or Y and includes only a handful of days when the Wii U had a price drop and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD was released.

Nintendo has a lot of work todo in the coming months to meet it’s target, it will face its investors today – it’s unlikely anything will be announced at this meeting and it may be months until we hear what was discussed.

Time to roll up those sleeves.