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.
