Today in Osaka, Nintendo released its revised forecast for this financial year. Things are not good.
“We had higher expectations for the year-end season, but failed to meet them,” Nintendo Satoru Iwata said today (via Reuters).
Nintendo is facing a bigger than expected annual loss, facing competition from smartphones and battling a strong yen as well as rivals Microsoft and Sony.
According to Reuters Nintendo is expecting an annual operating loss of ¥45 billion ($575 million). Analysts originally forecasted a lost of ¥4.2 billion yen ($51 million).
Hardware sales are not meeting expectations — though, things could be worse. In October 27, 2011, Nintendo forecasted hardware sales at six million DS units shipped for 2012, but as of January 26, 2012, changed that number to 5.5 million DS units. For DS software, the forecast changed from 62 million to 59 million units.
On October 27, 2011, Nintendo forecasted 12 million Wii units sold in the 2012 financial year. That number was revised to 10 million units. Wii software was originally forecasted at 100 million. That number was unchanged.
The 3DS is both on the comeback trail but still underperforming. On October 27, 2011, Nintendo forecasted 16 million 3DS units shipped. That number has been changed to 14 million. For 3DS software, Nintendo forecasted 50 million units shipped. On January 26, 2012, that number was changed to 38 million units ship — a huge drop.
Earlier this year, Iwata said he was taking the blame for the 3DS by taking a 50 per cent paycut.
Fund manager Mitsushige Akino told Reuters, “Their time of growth (from consoles) is over, and, while I don’t think the company will cease to exist, if they don’t move into new categories, they will no doubt lose the great scale they’ve amassed.”
Nintendo wowed gaming with an impressive run that included the Nintendo DS and the Wii, spawning the generation of game consoles. That run, it seems, is over.
Nintendo is heading for its first annual loss in 30 years.
Nintendo sees first annual loss, cuts 3DS forecast [Reuters]
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