Nintendo president: Expect 'Nintendo-like' profits in 2016 [Update]

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata recently acknowledged the long rebuilding process the company is mired in to become increasingly profitable again in the coming years. While unable to offer specific numbers, he toned down expectations for the coming financial year (FY 2014) as well as the next one (FY 2015) in a fiscal 2013 financial results briefing with investors, stressing that "instead of seeing a great and sudden recovery in our profitability in the next fiscal year, I am rather expecting to be able to report Nintendo-like profits from around the following fiscal year," referring to 2016. Nintendo posted a $229 million loss for the year, with Wii U estimates down 60 percent.

Part of the company's expected transition involves the outlook it receives as "a video game company." Iwata believes "the intrinsic nature of entertainment is much broader than how we see it today," and that Nintendo "may be able to establish some sort of new core business if we consider our role as an entertainment company in a broader sense." While that may involve Nintendo's "quality of life" initiatives, it also relates to the company's "active utilization of character IP" as well as its expanding definition of video game platforms.

It also relates to Nintendo's use of smart phones, as Iwata echoed the company's plans from January to branch into the mobile space: "Moreover, I feel that we will be able to further stimulate our platform business by taking advantage of smart devices," Iwata said. One of its first major pushes into mobile comes in the form of a Mario Kart TV companion app for Mario Kart 8, screens of which were included in Iwata's presentation, as seen above. Nintendo also recently unveiled a near-field communication (NFC) reader for the 3DS as well as plans to use the Wii U Game Pad's built-in NFC functionality with new character figurines.

Update: As it turns out, Iwata was referring to the fiscal year 2015 (2016) when he spoke of the company being able to report "Nintendo-like profits from around the following fiscal year," as opposed to 2015. We've updated the language in the article to reflect this.

[Image: Nintendo]