Nintendo Reduces Full-Year Forecasts, Confirms Wii U for Holiday 2012

Nintendo, the Japanese company known for Mario and Zelda, posted losses for the first nine months of the fiscal year. The Kyoto-based company also downgraded their full-year earnings and shipping forecasts. Nintendo cites the value of the yen being stronger than expected as the reason for the downgrade.

For the full fiscal year, Nintendo now projects losses of 65 billion yen ($837 million) which is higher than the previous projected loss of 20 billion yen ($258 million). Sales forecasts downgrade from 790 billion yen to 660 billion yen, or $10.2 billion to $8.5 billion.

These are not the only forecasts to be altered from their previous projections. 3DS hardware sales are expected to hit 14 million units globally for the year instead of 16 million. Full-year software sales for the 3DS is lowered from 50 million to 38 million.

To date, the 3DS has sold just over 15 million units. Even with titles such as  Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 driving momentum for strong holiday quarter sales of the 3DS handheld, Nintendo still missed sales targets. Nintendo added,

“With the regained momentum and a strong lineup of software on the way, prospects for the platform remain strong.”

Wii hardware shipments have also downgraded from 12 million to 10 million for the full year. At the end of December, life-to-date hardware shipment for the Wii were at 95 million. Wii software is still on track for the full year at 100 million units by the end of March.

The DS hardware forecasts have been lowered as well, from 6 million to 5.5 million units. To date, Nintendo has shipped out over 151 million DS units. The DS software forecasts are 59 million, down from 62 million. Overall shipments for DS software have hit 891 million since December 31.

Satoru Itawa, Nintendo president, told reporters that the new tablet controller equipped Wii U will be shipped by the holiday season of this year worldwide according to a Bloomberg report.

[Source: Gamasutra]

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