Wii U ships 300,000 units worldwide in Q2, still hurting Nintendo profits
Nintendo shipped approximately 300,000 Wii U units worldwide across the three months of July to September, nearly double what it did in the previous quarter. Despite the marked improvement, the company noted the the "Wii U hardware still has a negative impact" on profits, particularly because of the price cuts made to the system in the west. Nintendo reduced the Wii U Deluxe's North American price to $300 in August, after shifting just 160,000 units worldwide in its first fiscal quarter.
The Wii U's lifetime shipments are now up to 3.91 million, a figure almost matched by the 3.89 million 3DS units shipped across the first six months of Nintendo's fiscal year alone. Nintendo shipped around 2.5 million units of its handheld across Q2, while Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Tomodachi Collection posted six-month figures of 2.49 million and 1.63 million units.
The total six-month figure for 3DS software shipments is 27.38 million, up considerably from the 11 million or so for the first three months. The Wii U shows further improvement here, up to 6.3 million across six months compared to just over 1 million in the first three.
Nintendo's net profit across the first six months of its fiscal year is ¥600 million ($6.1 million). That's down considerably from the approximate $88 million net profit posted for the the first three months, and translates an operating loss of of ¥23.2 billion ($236 million). The company attributed this to advertising initiatives to increase sales, as well as research and development on software for the Wii U.
Update: Removed mention of 2DS, which was not yet on the market.
