Nintendo is making headlines this morning with some dramatic revisions to its Wii U and 3DS sales predictions.
The company has cut its estimated annual sales from 9 million all the way down to 2.8 million. Meanwhile, the 3DS has also been cut from 18 million to 13.5 million. As a result, the company is expecting another full year loss.
The company initially put profit at 55 billion yen ( £322m) but is now expecting that to drop to a loss of 25 billion yen ( £146m). Nintendo confessed that sales targets in both Europe and the US had been missed “by a large margin”.
Company president Satoru Iwata explained: “In particular, sales in the US and European markets in which we entered the year-end sales season with a hardware markdown were significantly lower than our original forecasts, with both hardware and software sales experiencing a huge gap from their targets.
“In addition, we did not assume at the beginning of the fiscal year that we would perform a markdown for the Wii U hardware in the US and European markets. This was also one of the reasons for lower sales and profit estimates.”
Holidays releases of big games like Super Mario 3D World evidently haven’t helped the system enough. Even the 3DS is behind, despite being the top-selling system in both the US and UK in 2013.
Iwata has said that, while he accepts responsibility for these failures, he will remain in-office to guide the company to recovery.
Will Nintendo find its feet with the Wii U?