Nintendo Acknowledges Tough Conditions by Cutting Profit and Sales Forecasts

@arronishere Those things always seems to tight lipped when it comes to finding out about them, but I wouldn't be surprised if a resurgence in VC efforts was made towards the end of the Wii U's life to keep money flowing in.

The NX can't come soon enough. But, even that's something of a huge gamble.

It really and truly is time to launch the NX this year. I know they can sustain a while while not making what they want, but they need to save face as well. They do need to make profits, but they also need to turn the ship around in the eyes of gamers, media, analysts, etc. Bring the Nintendo name back to prominence!

I really just hope Nintendo has learned from this generation. I also really cannot see more Wii U's being sold this year than last year considering how there are a lot less "heavy hitters" coming this year. The only real big one is (or at least should be) Zelda.

From the sounds of these forecasts, NX is either a handheld or isn't being released until late 2017! HYPE!

Amazing that the 3Ds sales are bemoaned as being poor and on the wain, and yet they are still 2x the projected WII U sales. Id be interested to know how much stock Nintendo made during the release window and how much additional production has actually been required since.

E3 2015 should have been a good indicator for how the year would go. It was certainly a disappointing E3 before Star Fox was delayed.

Reggie also mentioned that new hardware was going to be a focus of the next year, which should have explained the abundance of spinoff content that was shown + Mario Tennis sitting in for Zelda U.

I can't imagine new hardware of some sort either for the current gen or the NX gen (more likely) isn't coming out this year. Otherwise the weak 2015 holiday really wouldn't have been justified if there's only software again Q3 2016

The original Wii U software estimate was so strange. They sold 24.5 million units of software to 9 million console owners last year. This year there are an extra 3 million console owners, a rise of over 30%. If anything you'd naturally apply the same 30% increase to software which would be about 32 million. So why did they project such a low amount of software sold?

@Grumblevolcano

Not sure where you get any NX hints from in this? These targets are for up to March 2016.

@Captain_Gonru I would agree but in the eshop they do make the distinction between it being a Wii game for the likes Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil 4 etc and a VC game like Earthbound, Super Mario Bros 3 etc. In any hoot it's just a thought.

Hooray for New 3DS! ;D

I've still got loads of games on 3DS and Wii U to be getting through so I'm not too bothered if NX is released this year or not. However, would like to know what it actually is.

While lowered forecasts are obviously bad news, I'd say 151,000,000 Dollars in pure profit is definitely not too shabby.

You have to wonder if the above are reasons or excuses for the low results.

If I remember correctly Microsoft released the Xbox one while still releasing games for the 360, I guess easing gamers out of one and into another. I don't see why Nintendo can't do the same.

Why does Nintendo's games output have to come to an almost complete standstill for 18 months before a new console release.

Any other company would keep their production up while making changes.

"is estimated to be 17,000 million yen (around $151 million), which is a drop from the previous estimate of 35 million Yen (about $310 million)."

Personally, I'd prefer to have the 17,000 million yen instead of the 35 million Yen

@zerotheclown I agree. The NX is Nintendo's chance to show they can dominate the game industry again, and they are just delaying their profits if the NX comes out in 2017.

@wazlon agreed. I have enough games to last me two years, at least. More importantly for nintendo, they need to execute its launch, or it will be an even bigger disaster than the Wii U. I'd rather see the NX fine tuned in 2017 than half baked at the end of this year.

@CB85 it's shabby considering that three of the last five years have been in the red.

@zool were any of those games as good as Fire Emblem Fates, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Splatoon, Super Mario Maker and others (I thought Yoshi Wooly World was great personally though I dare not paise a 2D platformer rehash) or as good as Zelda U, Pokemon S&M (lol), Star Fox Zero, Pokken, should be?

It's ridiculous to call that lineup 'a complete standstill'. Especially when I'm purposefully neglecting several other perfectly good games that would bring the wrath of the haters here down on me.

@Peach64 Agreed. I got a Wii U in November for my birthday, (the Splatoon/Smash bundle) and have already bought 12 games for it. However, most of the games I've bought are NON-Nintendo games like WatchDog, Assassin's Creed, Lego Dimensions, Batman, etc. The only Nintendo games I bought were NES Remix, and Bayonetta 2 (with the 1st included).

I'm wondering if others are doing what I'm doing and stocking up on the older, cheaper games. When a Nintendo published game is still $50 or more, and I can get 4 games for that price by buying older, still highly rated, non-nintendo published games; I'm guying the non-Nintendo published ones.

But, the only thing I've really played is Splatoon and Lego. I LOVE Splatoon!

Not too big of a deal since they basically adjusted the numbers to what it was trending to last quarter. Stock price will take a hit and then climb again before their new year financial meeting in May.

Nintendoomed

@Grumblevolcano What Peach said. The last analyst meeting was all about their Q4 (which is Jan-March of this year) w/ a bit of their overall past 2015-2016 year. This is just addressing revisions for now - Jan-March - and the past year. Nitneod has been absolutely mum about anything going forward beyond next month.

Their was a big Q&A about when they would be regaining "Ntineod like profits" that NL wrote an article about, saying it (re)confirmed NX is 2016, but it was all just the usual corporate speak that said nothing. But as far as I'm concerned, they never said anything concrete about the rest of 2016, and they probably won't until April.

It's only 32 comments, half of them mine, none of them yours, might be worth a read to get you caught up.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2016/02/tatsumi_kimishima_pinpoints_nx_and_mobile_as_key_areas_to_deliver_nintendo-like_profits

How are they going to sell so much Wii U software when they never put out any? There is literally nothing on the horizon. (Except Zelda U, which at this point is more of a folk tale than an actual thing to me.) Well, I guess that Pokken Tournament thing will sell decently with Pokemon fans, but I ain't buying it.

Of important note here is, even with slashed numbers they're still making a HECK of a lot of dough. It's not like they're losing money or in any way "in trouble."

Having to revise your profit estimates down 51% is extreme. Will it be revised down even further?

I was not long ago reading an article from back in 2010 when Nintendo was considered "doomed" because they only banked US$2.5 BILLION (joking, of course).

Previous to those days Nintendo was averaging around US$800 MILLION a QUARTER.

How times have changed.

1) The same YEN that helped them last year (when they should have been much worst off or even in the red) is now against them.

2) 3DS sales are not as expected (and the Wii U is so bad that any improvement will make it look good).

3) Ammibo???

However, Nintendo must not rush the NX. Although these profits are peanuts compared to what they are used to and the shareholders are not happy, another flopped console and that's it.

It's good thinking to have the phone market in mind, just in case.

@rockodoodle All the more reason 150m+ Dollars in profit is good then, right?

@Project_Dolphin
A profit is always better than a lost. Lower profits however is a sign of retardation in your company. Drastically lower profits is a sign of a company in free fall. It doesn't matter how much is in the bank. Such a massive slow down within your business is a gross NEGATIVE.

This doesn't mean a company can't come back. You mentioned SONY. Read their last FINANCIAL REPORT and stop speculating.

Between sales of the PS4, films like Spectre and music from Adele, their profits are in very good shape compared to where they were a few years back.

I think they made like $2bn net profit or something last report but DON'T quote me on that. My internet at work is rather slow so looking it up is a hassle.

@CB85 well, sorta.... It's nice that they were able to stop the bleeding. But their current revenue streams are drying up, hence so much talk of the NX. Gonna guess that we'll see losses or break even next year. Granted, Nintendo can easily sustain losses for two decades, but a lot is riding on the NX or Nintendo risks fading into obscurity.....

@Project_Dolphin Yeah, true that. Ah well, their in a transitional period. This time next year they'll be fully active in the mobile scene, and NX will have launched (presumably). I'm imagining they'll be back to billions of Dollars of profit within the next few years, anyway.

Tough conditions may not be helping Nintendo but they've made some poor decisions themselves in recent years and imo their software output has been poor relative to previous gens...

Anyone else notice how they threw this under the radar because of the Pokemon announcement? Corporations are sneaky hobbits.

@zool - can you ever see a news article about Nintendo and take the cynical, conspiratorial blinders off?

You say Microsoft kept releasing games for Xbox360 when XboxOne came out, but Microsoft develops and published very few games of it's own.

I think you mean THIRD PARTIES kept releasing games on Xbox360, because Microsoft were busy having Rare make Killer Instict Pay-2-play and Kinect 2.0 family fitness games while Bungie worked on Halo re-masters and Halo 5.

One of the primary reasons people lost interest in the Wii near the end of it's cycle was because the general public were quickly moving to HDTV screens and mobile took over the casual gaming market.

These failings of Nintendo moving between Wii and Wii U have been rehashed and gone over a zillion times, so this is no new revelation here.

There was also a backlash against motion controls, but I think Microsoft walked into that wall much harder with Kinect 2.0 then anyone else.

Only thing I hope is that they don't repeat the same thing as they did with the Wii U. I haven't been so disappointed with Nintendo as I've been this generation.

wii u expectations were pretty low to begin with so exceeding them is like expecting a kick to the head but getting a punch instead. it's almost eerie how even the nx rumor mill is silent. nobody's even making stuff up anymore. there's something a-cooking.

@Action51 Bungie did not develop the Halo remasters and 5. That's 343 studios.

@Action51 Bungie did not develop the Halo remasters and 5. That's 343 studios.

The 2015 holiday lineup for both Wii U and 3DS last year was pretty bad. Pokémon Z, a game that we now know likely isn't going to arrive with the announcement of Pokémon Sun/Moon, should have been released last year on the 3DS. It would have been a guaranteed 7-8 million seller, and would have pushed 3DS software and hardware sales much closer to forecasts. This also proves just how much Nintendo needs to unify their console and handheld development teams. Revenues and profits would have been a lot better if the 3DS had (or should I say, could handle) Splatoon and Mario Maker, and if the Wii U had Happy Home Designer (or better yet, an actual Animal Crossing games).

I'm glad the Wii U's software sales managed outperformed expectations.

@Hotfusion said: "Having to revise your profit estimates down 51% is extreme. Will it be revised down even further?"

I dunno, but the slope I'm sliding down is extremely slippery. Will it become even more of a slippery slope?

@EngieBengie - Thanks for the correction.

Either way, Microsoft develops very few of the titles we see on Xbox consoles, and mostly they just publish.

This is not good short term or long term.

Short term, obviously, is a concern that they don't post a profit for this current fiscal year.

Long term problem is that they'll rush NX out to try and make a profit in the next FY, and by doing so we'll be facing lots of patches and updates because the system won't be ready.

Nintendo's not going under, but I just hope they have a plan and stick to it, and don't overreact to bad numbers due to horrible decisions of the past.

@Project_Dolphin
"No one complained about their company (Sony), though."
Seriously??

Fanboys of MS and Nintendo have been glorifying and predicting Sony's demise for years - even on this site. Likewise the anti-Nintendo mob take pleasure in Nintendo's grief.

As for your last statement regarding Japanese baleouts for Sony, you really have no idea.

What kept Sony in business is its assets. Sony can sell these off to generate income, which is what they did during their hard times. They sold buildings, etc.,

Sony currently has assets of US$142 Billion. Before the last recession these were over US$200billion.

Look, I am not going to get into all that. I am no Sony fanboy... I am no fanboy period, but let's stick with the facts and Nintendo. This is a Nintendo forum afterall.

Nintendo is a gaming company, if that market fails they have nothing to fall back on.

Contrary to popular belief Nintendo is not invincible.

Nintendo is a business. A business has shareholders. Shareholders want big profits. These are the roughest times in Nintendo's history. Shareholders are disappointed when profits fall, even if others are happy with the peanuts.

The decisions Nintendo makes is what dictates their success or failure. I hope they make the right ones.

Maybe if they had released the black, smaller new 3DS in the US I'd have even bought new hardware..as it is, I'm happy with my launch 3DS and am mostly just upset at lack of new VC titles or other games for 3DS coming out lately...besides Steamworld Heist basically.

This is simple math. You can't make good profits without having things to sell! Hey Nintendo! Wake up! Bring out the good games and maybe your sales will soar again! Disney Magical World 2 and Style Savvy 3 would be a good start. And put the GameBoy Advance games on the 3ds EShop like you promised 5 years ago.

The lowered projections has me thinking NX will be releasing sooner rather than later. Not in the sense of needing it to save the company, but in the sense that they probably plan to spend a lot for NX with its release campaign.

Just a random guess.

@zool
"Why does Nintendo's games output have to come to an almost complete standstill for 18 months before a new console release."

In my opinion, it's because they don't have enough game studios. So what happens is, in order to get enough games put together for a system launch (not a great launch just a launch) they have to switch all their studios from the old to the new. Partially because they just don't have many studios and partially because they don't get a lot of 3rd party support and partially because the first couple of games for a new system require more time and energy for figure out the nuances of developing for the new system.
If I owned Nintendo, I'd have them buy/build up more studios. However, since I don't own/run Nintendo I'd rather they do it this way and have a few games at launch then continue supporting the old consoles and completely ruin their new system by a terrible launch lineup. Can you imagine if the 3DS lineup had been even more barren or if games like Fire Emblem Awakening, Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 were another year out because they supported the DS for another year?

@TruenoGT I disagree, if they were only supporting 1 system they'd be putting out more games than I'd have time to play (assuming most of them are good/great games and not more Mario Tennis ultra smash/ animal crossing festival/ happy home designer)

@leo13 why not at some point built the games for the new console while at the same time have them backward compatible for the Wii U. Nintendo do not have to design separate games.

Dvd' s are released together as basic DVD, blue ray and blueray 3d.

@zool It's difficult for me to give a super intelligent opinion on that idea because I don't know how much time/work it takes to port an NX game to Wii U. If it's a quick and easy thing to do that doesn't use up much as far as resources then sure go for it, but if it takes very much then I wouldn't suggest it and here's why.
1-If people like me can get all the new super cool games on my Wii U then why would I buy an NX?
2-They're already short on resources I want all their resources to go towards a new game not several versions of a current game.
3-It doesn't increase the sales total that much as most people are unlikely to buy both either they'll stay with the old system and buy it on the old system or they'll buy the new system and buy it on the old system, but not both.
4-For the few people that will buy both there also might exist weird circumstances like happened to me. When Twilight Princess came out I was in college and had a gamecube, but I couldn't afford a Wii. I thought about buying it, but decided to wait until I had a Wii. It was over 3 years before I was able to afford a Wii (I got a bundle that came with Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and motion plus). By the time I had the Wii there were a lot more shiny new games, plus Twilight Princess was not as easy to find at that point plus I was hearing rumors about the development of Skyward Sword and how it was almost done (I didn't know it would get pushed back a year) so I decided to just get other fun Wii games and wait for Skyward Sword (which I did get and loved)

In other words, if it's cheap, quick, and easy then yes I'd say go for it, but it usually isn't and I don't know if it will be for NX or not. If it's not cheap, quick and easy then I'd be against it.

@zool Ps3 games still coming out now...

@Project_Dolphin
OK. I see what you meant.

@zool
This is the thing. What architecture is the new console? If it is x86 then it is not a simple matter developing the same game for two different CPUs.

Iwata, before his passing, made it clear that NX is a new concept and a complete break away from the old.
I hoped this meant no Backwards Compatibility. I know some people love it but personally I think it is just that, backwards. Nothing against those that want it.

@Kiyata All the promised about the GBA games on 3DS eShop was that they would remain exclusive to ambassadors.

@Hotfusion the concept of any console is game playing. Consoles evolve with better graphics, anything else is under the hood and doesn't concern most gamers. The physical stuff like controllers are mostly just different. Is the Wii controller better than the Wii U controller or the pro controller. No, just different or maybe more gmmicky.

The NX won't be any different, after all we will just get a picture on a screen and a controller.

There is no reason why the Wii U could not be phased out and the NX phased in, rather than few to no games for the Wii U while relying on NX sales to sell the games. Resulting a loss of a revenue stream from from the 12,000,000 Wii U's.

Had the revenue continued for a few years from the Wii's 100,000,000 units things may be different now.

@RCMADIAX 151M isnt really a lot, for a big corporation it like bately breaking even. If you have worked in a big corporation you will realize that the bonuses to executives, employees would most likely decimate these earnings. Even stockholders are frustrated due to the low dividend income of their stocks.

People still buying the original Wii??😳 Although giving it some further thought, the Wii still crushing the Wii u with its library of vc games. Still a much wider selection and in much greater quantities! Hope the NX changes that around me being a huge retro guy!!😊

@zool
Yes, you are right - and wrong. But you misunderstood my statement.

You are right. The architecture under the hood does not necessarily concern the consumer, but it concerns the developers and that is what I am talking about.
You said, quote: "...while at the same time have them backward compatible for the Wii U. Nintendo do not have to design separate games".
Yes they do if the NX is running a new AMD (once ATI) chipset. It definitively will not be running the PowerPC and ATI CPU/GPU combo of the GameCube, Wii and WiiU.

Think for a sec. The Wii was described as two Gamecubes taped together. That was why it was simple to code LoZ:TP and release it on both at the same time.
To write a game, for example The new Zelda, for WiiU and NX will be writing TWO games or at the very least include an inferior port.

One is RISC, the other is CISC, etc.
Anyhow enough of this tech stuff. Let's agree to disagree.

What worries me is that I was misinformed that NX dev kits were out in the wild. If they are no dev kits in the wild then developers are NOT developing games for the NX at this moment.

I love how the Nintendo building is a SEGA Master System game.

I love people here saying that 151 millions is a great profit for Nintendo... it`s not!
Or you all forget the Wii/DS time (not to long ago), when profit digits are way bigger than that, and make the Nintendo a giant once more.
That is the kind of profit that enterprises like MS, Apple, Google... are always chasing.
The new president Kimishima even have stated that they want to be making that kind of profit or better in 3 years.
Seeing how the 3DS and the Wii U are seeling less and less on all countries even on the japan, just make more clear to me that, Nintendo has to launch the NX the sooner they can.
Personally, i think that they will launch NX around September 2017, to have it prepared for a great black friday and christmas time.

@Hotfusion Agree to disagree OK.

I still put my money (well a tiny bit) on the NX working in conjunction with the Wii U and maybe the Wii U 2 in the very near future.
.

Considering they spent the last year wielding one flop machine, one running out of steam and their worst holiday line-up of games in history it's not a bad result even if a lot of it probably came from DLC toys rather than games. I'm not sure their investors will be happy with 'OK in context' but that's what it is. It illustrates why they need NX to have a good launch in 2016.

I really wish best of luck to nintendo and its employees who have created great games for a lot of people over the years.