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Nintendo posts $229M loss, Wii U estimates down by 60 percent
Nintendo fell slightly short of the reduced financial projections it set in January, with the Wii U reaching 2.72 million shipments for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. However, the system remains way off Nintendo's initial projection of 9 million, so it's no surprise to see more conservative estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015 of 3.6 million units. That's 60 percent less than Nintendo originally projected for the previous year. Total Wii U shipments are now up to 6.17 million, nearly a year and a half after the console launched. On the software side, Nintendo revealed figures of 32.28 million units to date, with New Super Mario Bros. U (4.16 million), Nintendo Land (3.09 million) and Super Mario 3D World (2.17 million) leading the way.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon dev now Nintendo-only studio
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon and Super Mario Strikers developer Next Level Games is now making games for Nintendo exclusively, co-founder Jason Carr revealed during an interview with Gamasutra. Next Level previously helmed a 2009 Wii remake of Nintendo's classic NES boxing game Punch-Out!!, following up with the multiplatform Captain America: Super Soldier in 2011 before releasing Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon last year. Dark Moon went on to sell more than three million units worldwide, emerging as one of the biggest-selling 3DS releases to date. Dark Moon producer Ken Yeeloy cites studio stability and a good working relationship with Nintendo as the driving factors behind the company's decision to develop games for Nintendo exclusively. "When we work with [Nintendo], it is strictly about the game, throughout the entire process," Yeeloy told Gamasutra. "The focus is driven by the quality of the game, and what is cool, and what feels good -- not how much money it's going to cost or how long is it going to take."
Luigi finally gets his own 3DS bundle in this, the year of Luigi
As we close out the honored, seemingly endless Year of Luigi, Nintendo has one more gift planned for Mario's lanky brother. A Cobalt Blue Nintendo 3DS with a preinstalled copy of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon will hit store shelves on November 28 for $169.99. The Cobalt Blue color scheme -- a deeper shade than the platform's Aqua Blue launch model -- is a favorite among 3DS software bundles, having been introduced in a Fire Emblem: Awakening package deal but never released as a standalone product in North America. Luigi himself inspired a fan-made Nintendo 2DS mod last month, which was later auctioned off for charity. Of course, it might be more appropriately festive if the 3DS included in the Dark Moon bundle was colored green, but eh, what are you gonna do? Luigi's year is almost up, and maybe Nintendo's getting tired of him strutting around like he owns the place.
Five 3DS games shifted millions in the last six months
Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon are among five 3DS games that each shipped more than a million copies between April and September. The three other members of Nintendo's million-high club are Tomodachi Collection, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. It's New Leaf that led the way over the last six months, shipping 2.49 million worldwide and just over 2 million in the West; it came to Japan back in November 2012, before heading West in June. The cutesy sim's life-to-date figures are an impressive 6.35 million. Meanwhile, despite being released at the end of March and just before the start of Nintendo's fiscal year, Dark Moon came in second with 1.91 million. More significantly, its life-to-date total is 3.13 million. The remaining three all came in beneath the 2 million mark: the Japan-only Tomodachi Collection at 1.63 million, Dream Team at 1.37 million, and Country Returns 3D at 1.19 million. Together, the five 3DS games shipped 8.59 million units in those six months, contributing 31 percent of the system's total software shipments. If you're not all statted-out by that, here's a final bit of info for you: New Leaf's figures would put it fourth on the handheld's all-time list, behind the plumber triforce of Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7, and New Super Mario Bros. 2. That's based on figures from March 2013, though, and the new Poke-games must be closing in after selling a crazy 4 million worldwide in just two days.
Nintendo's sales figures for August include many zeros, plumbing heroes
Following the NPD Group's analysis of August's overall sales data comes a handful of extra statistics from Nintendo. When taking both physical and digital sales into account, Mario & Luigi: Dream Team has sold "nearly" 190,000 units since its release on August 11. Meanwhile, Pikmin 3 has sold "more than" 115,000 since August 4, while New Super Luigi U has sold "nearly" 120,000 units since refreshing the Year of Luigi on August 25. Nintendo also updated on its year to date: More than 6.47 million pieces of 3DS software have been sold in 2013, with Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon being the best-selling of the lot at 863,000 physical/digital copies. Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a close second, however, having moved 739,000 units in three fewer months on the market.
July NPD: NCAA Football and Minecraft lead software, 3DS still on top
The NPD Group has released its report on sales in the physical retail channel of the games industry during the month of July, with both predictable and surprising results. On the predictable side of things, all three segments (Hardware, Software and Accessories) continued their downward year-over-year decline, with total Hardware sales suffering a 34-percent decrease: $99.4 million this year as compared with $150.9 million over the same period in 2012. Despite this industry-wide decline, Nintendo's 3DS saw a 14 percent year-over-year increase in sales as it held its spot as the best-selling piece of hardware for a third month in a row. This is the first time a handheld has topped the market for such a lengthy period since the Nintendo DS' three month streak in the fall/winter of 2010, according to NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan. Meanwhile, the Xbox 360 remained the best-selling home console for the thirty-first month in a row. As per usual, the Accessories segment suffered the least amount of market fluctuation, experiencing only a three percent year-over-year loss and bringing in $133.4 million in sales. Also maintaining the status quo, this segment's stability continues to be attributed to steady sales of digital currency and subscription giftcards.
Nintendo posts Q1 net profit, Wii U shipped 160K worldwide
Despite a 3.8 percent year-on-year drop in revenue, Nintendo posted a healthy ¥8.62 billion net profit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, or just under $88 million. However, the concern for the company must be the new low Wii U shipments dropped to. The console only shifted 160,000 units across the three months, less than half the figure of the previous quarter, leaving it at 3.61 million shipped to date. Nintendo attributed the Q1 net profit to substantial currency exchange gains due to the depreciating value of the yen, although it also noted better profitability on 3DS hardware contributed to increased gross profit. Nintendo forecasts its net profit to rise to ¥55 billion by the end of the fiscal year, around $562 million. The Wii U, which Nintendo noted still sells at a loss, struggled severely, as did its games with just over 1 million software units shifted worldwide in the three months ending in June 2013. Nintendo put its poor performance down to "few key first-party titles this quarter to strongly drive the hardware sales," and reiterated its intent to amend that in the second half of 2013 and through to next year. Nintendo still forecasts 9 million Wii U shipments across the fiscal year of April 2013 to March 2014. News is rosier on Nintendo's portable side, with the 3DS shipping 1.4 million hardware units and just over 11 million software units in Q1. A significant contributor to the software numbers was Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which after coming to the west this summer added just over 1.5 million worldwide across the quarter. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was another important asset, shipping 1.43 million units. Animal Crossing: New Leaf now has life-to-date global figures of 5.4 million, while Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is at 2.65 million. Finally, the Wii reached a significant landmark, shipping a further 210,000 units worldwide to take it to the 100 million mark.
PSA: 3DS XL free game promo ends today
A quick reminder to prospective 3DS XL buyers: Today is the last day you can snag a free game with a new 3DS XL. The catch is that you'll have to buy and register either Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon in order to do so. Once you've registered both your 3DS XL and either game on Club Nintendo, you can choose a free download of Super Mario 3D Land, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone!, Star Fox 64 3D, or Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive!One word of warning if you plan to buy the downloadable versions of either Luigi's Mansion or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Be sure to link your 3DS XL to your Club Nintendo account before downloading either game. The deal applies to any 3DS XL purchased on or after February 14, 2013.
Wii U shipments miss targets at 3.45M, projected 9M for next fiscal year
The Wii U shipped 3.45 million units worldwide as of March 31, a figure well short of the 4 million projected in January, itself adjusted from initial forecasts of 5.5 million. That means the Wii U only shipped around 390,000 units worldwide in the last three months.In a financial statement, Nintendo said its console failed to "maintain the initial sales momentum" due to delays of subsequent games, and the company aims to remedy this in the second half of this year through to next year by "releasing key Nintendo titles." The company believes this'll help the Wii U attain its projected shipping figures of 9 million for the next fiscal year (April 1 2013 to March 31 2014).Nintendo's fiscal year net profits came in at almost half the company's projections, down from a projected ¥14 billion to just over ¥7 billion, or around $71 million. The figure nonetheless represents significant turnaround from the ¥43 billion net loss posted for the previous fiscal year. Nintendo forecasts net profits of ¥55 billion for its next fiscal year.3DS shipping figures continue to climb, with the handheld now at 31.09 million, up over a million in the last quarter. The Wii remains short of the 100M mark at 99.84 million. The Wii outperformed the Wii U in the last quarter, shipping 70,000 units more at 460,000.
Nintendo: 30% of Fire Emblem sales on eShop, Luigi does better at retail
Nintendo's executive vice president of sales and marketing, Scott Moffit, revealed during a Nintendo event in San Francisco that Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon has sold 415,000 copies in the US, while 3DS RPG Fire Emblem: Awakening has sold 240,000. This data will be reflected in tomorrow's NPD report.According to Moffit, "the vast majority" of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon sales have come through retail. More than a third of Fire Emblem's sales (80,000) have been through the eShop, with over half of those individuals coming back to purchase a map pack. Moffitt says nine more map packs are planned for Fire Emblem: Awakening, with three of those nine due later this month.
Luigi's Mansion 'Poltergeist 5000' replica doesn't suck
Nintendo has collaborated with iam8bit to produce a real-life replica of Luigi's supernatural sucker, the Poltergeist 5000 vacuum seen in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The making-of video above shows the vacuum itself is functional, with a gutted vacuum motor housed within custom parts at its core.iam8bit is a gaming art and exhibition company, with recent exhibitions highlighting the Street Fighter series and its American Icons series.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon review: Ghouls' Gold
Ghost busting is a lucrative job. I don't know how much money Luigi makes as a plumber, but it can't be as much as he gets for vacuuming up ghosts. The spectres of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon are positively stuffed with coins, cash and gold bars. (And so is the furniture – the mansion's owners won't notice if you pilfer an ingot or two, right?) Granted, it's terrifying work, but it's got to be better than playing second fiddle to the world-renowned Mario every day of your life.As with most jobs, however, the problem isn't really the money. It's the grind. How many houses can you de-spook before supernatural elimination loses its luster? The answer, I've discovered, is right around five.%Gallery-177411%
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon commercial sends mixed signals
We can't tell if this commercial is implying that Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is more fun than taking care of the ghosts in your own obviously haunted mansion, or if Dark Moon will in fact cause your house to become a haunted mansion itself. Either way, where the hell are this kid's parents?
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon skit sees Miyamoto clean up
You may have missed it amongst all the goings-on of the North American and European broadcasts, but last week's Nintendo Direct for Japan featured a cute little sketch which saw Shigeru Miyamoto and Satoru Iwata get into the spirit of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.This week, Nintendo republished it for English-speaking viewers, extra useful since the video includes five minutes of Miyamoto talking about the upcoming 3DS game.
Buy a 3DS XL and Luigi's Mansion or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, get a free game
If you were thinking of buying a 3DS XL to play either Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon or Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Nintendo is offering you a little extra incentive. If you register a 3DS XL on Club Nintendo starting today, and register one of those two games, between March 21 and April 30, you'll get a free downloadable copy of Super Mario 3D Land, Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask, Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone!, Star Fox 64 3D, or Freakyforms Deluxe: Your Creations, Alive! Your choice, so you aren't stuck with Freakyforms.
Tour Luigi's Mansion in new screens
There are a lot of new screens of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon in our gallery, including a lot of ghosts, a lot of creepy dark spaces, and, thanks to the multiplayer mode, a lot of Luigis.
The multiplayer Scarescraper of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
It was rather disappointing when Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was delayed out of last year into the increasingly crowded early 2013 timeframe, but if there's any company that wants its headline products to be top-notch, it's Nintendo. (After all, it was Miyamoto who uttered the now-famous "A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is forever bad" quote.) Plus, every time I've had a chance with some hands-on with the game, I've come away more and more impressed with how much it builds on the concepts of the original GameCube game. Now there's a brand-new multiplayer element in the mix, and it's not what you might expect.The multiplayer mode is separate from the single-player campaign, and supports up to four players either locally or online. (Players without the game can also join in with limited-function download play.) Rather than retreading the Luigi's Mansion inspired minigame in Nintendo Land, the Dark Moon multiplayer mode has more in common with a roguelike than the simple hide-and-seek of Nintendo Land's adaptation.%Gallery-177167%
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon features local multiplayer
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon brings local multiplayer to the ghost-busting series when it arrives on 3DS in March. The reveal comes via the game's description on Nintendo's website, which notes "a brand new local multiplayer mode," one which may well have been lurking in the shadows for some time.Curiously, the summary on the same page details the 3DS game as "1 player." Then again, it also offers an outdated 'March 2013' release window, which has since been upgraded. The return of Luigi and his foreboding abode is now set in tombstone for March 24.
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon hits North America on March 24
Nintendo announced Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon has a North American release date of March 24. The previously revealed window was 'first half of 2013,' but the new date brings the green-clad plumber's antics to 3DS in just over two months. %Gallery-176608%
In search of hidden objects in Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon
Sidekicks, with their one-dimensional character traits to help round out leading characters, are always fun to have around. In Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Mario's lanky brother steps out of his sibling's shadow and into the haunted locales of his latest starring role, fleshing the character out as even more of a scaredy cat than we've come to know.Luigi's second romp through a haunted mansion offers something different for 3DS fans, following much of the same from Mario's previous adventure.Focusing less on combating the franchise's famously shy ghosts, the demo for Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon found its niche in quirky humor and puzzles.%Gallery-157215%
