As was already known, this is the financial year that will bring us Nintendo's NX system, though the company isn't yet ready to reveal details despite reports that may have outed key details on the platform. What we do have are the Q1 financial results, which as expected don't reflect a dramatic increase in fortunes thanks to Pokémon GO; in fact, it's business as usual.
To begin with the nuts and bolts of the financial figures — covering 1st April 2016 to 30th June 2016 — we have net sales of just 61,969 million Yen (approximately $586.6 million), which is down 31.3% on the equivalent period last year. The limited and low impact of releases since 1st April is also reflected in the bottom line, with a net income loss of 24,534 million Yen (approx $232.2 million), following a modest profit in the same period in the previous year. The core business of making and selling products also brought a small operating loss of 5,134 million Yen, which is roughly $48.6 million; currency exchange losses were also cited.
The financial report says the following regarding these figures, providing sales updates on key releases:
During the three-month period ended June 30, 2016, for Nintendo 3DS, Kirby: Planet Robobot, which was released globally, showed steady sales. In the U.S., BRAVELY SECOND: END LAYER was released, and in Europe, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright/Conquest was released and both titles got off to a good start. As a result, the worldwide sales of Nintendo 3DS hardware and software were 0.94 million (7% decrease on a year-on-year basis) and 8.47 million units (7% increase on a year-on-year basis) respectively.
With respect to Wii U, in addition to titles such as Star Fox Zero/Guard and Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, which were released globally, Splatoon and Super Mario Maker which were released during the prior fiscal year showed steady sales. The global sales of Wii U hardware and software were 0.22 million (53% decrease on a year-on-year basis) and 4.68 million units (3% increase on a year-on-year basis) respectively.
For amiibo, the figure-type and the card-type sales remained at approximately 1.70 million units and 1.30 million units respectively mainly due to a lack of new titles that are compatible with amiibo. Download sales decreased year on year because sales of in-game downloadable content were down.
The notable issue there is with amiibo, which is down on the previous equivalent period in sales; as Nintendo states, a lack of new supporting titles likely contributed to that drop.
Nintendo is sticking to its previously stated estimates for the whole financial year, also affirming that NX launch sales are factored into those projections - an operating profit of 45,000 million Yen, around $425.9 million, and a net income profit of 35,000 million Yen, roughly $331.3 million. Pokemon Sun and Moon and Mario Party Star Rush have been highlighted as key 3DS titles, while NX, Pokemon GO Plus (which is delayed a little, we'll cover that in detail elsewhere) and upcoming mobile titles for Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem will also be notable contributors.
Moving on to hardware and software sales, the numbers are all very modest. With the 3DS there's an ambition to boost its fortunes through Pokemon and growing key audiences, but the Wii U is still expected to ship under one million units this year.
Wii U
Hardware Sales (Q1) — 220,000 units
Hardware Sales (life to date) — 13.02 million units
Hardware Sales Projection (2016 to 2017) — 800,000 units
Software Sales (Q1) — 4.68 million units
Software Sales Projection (2016 to 2017) — 15 million units
3DS
Hardware Sales (Q1) — 940,000 units
Hardware Sales (life to date) — 59.79 million units
Hardware Sales Projection (2016 to 2017) — 5 million units
Software Sales (Q1) — 8.47 million units
Software Sales Projection (2016 to 2017) — 55 million units
None of the projections have changed for Wii U and 3DS, which is unsurprising as the major releases for both platforms are yet to come. In the case of 3DS the numbers are modest but reflect a system still relevant on the marketplace, while the Wii U figures demonstrate that Nintendo is simply letting it wind down.
We'll provide more detailed coverage throughout the day, but let us know what you think of these figures in the comments below.
[source nintendo.co.jp]
Comments (41)
It makes sense that the first quarter would have low sales. It will be the upcoming 9 months that will be the most interesting.
No alarms and no surprises....
i think the 3ds will sell about 70 million units
@kamikazilucas
15 million more games. Just over 1 game per Wii U owner. Bit optimistic maybe but not unthinkable.
MK8 DLC incoming, perhaps timed for the autumn/winter peak. It's easy money, so don't expect much in the way of new courses, they'll be older courses revived.
If those rumours about NX are true there's a storm on the horizon and they'll be in even bigger trouble. Unless there's more to it that we don't know about.
Q1 is always the quietest quarter for gaming companies.. not many big releases during late spring, plus Nintendo has basically pushed their last efforts (everything else is now on NX, this much is pretty clear) on 3DS and Wii U obviously during the fall, so not many surprises here..
But I keep thinking that on a financial standpoint not announcing NX until September is a terrible idea. Announcing NX at E3/now would have reassured the investors, then they could have concentrated their fall's efforts in on the 3DS/Wii U price cut for christmas season, the last round of 1st/2nd party games, the new mobile games and maybe some new amiibos (at this point it's time for the nuclear option: pokémon amiibo cards). Announcing NX in September means that NX will steal everyone else's thunder, price cut or not people will want the NX after the announcement, and the problem is that the NX won't be so far. Price cut or not, why buy a 3DS/Wii U? At least the 3DS can count on kids thanks to the price cut, but the Wii U is pretty much doomed. This is another GBA/GC/DS situation, when Nintendo said that the DS was a "third pillar" and not a sub for the GameBoy line, and then...
P.S. If NX is really an hybrid as described by yesterday's sketchy rumors, what do you guys think of the Nintendo 7 name? Seven is by far the easiest number to publicize, it would finally stick to people as a new console (no more Wii/Wii U confusion, that was one of the biggest mistakes Nintendo has ever done), plus the 7 can symbolize the fact that NX is the seventh family of Nintendo mainstream consoles (1: Famicon family; 2: GameBoy family; 3:Nintendo 64; 4: GameCube; 5: DS family; 6: Wii family)
The end of the Amiibo craze. Ah well, it lasted way longer than I expected.
@gcunit You'll be delighted to see Project Giant Robot is back on the release schedule with a TBD beside it.
https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2016/160727_3e.pdf
Nintendo's really not being doing great for quite a few years now. It had such a great track record up until that point.
Those are some terrible, terrible figures. Nintendo made some huge mistakes with the Wii U and 3DS, and now they're reaping the "rewards". Even the Amiibo bubble has already burst.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE

Those Wii U numbers are the stuff of nightmares. I'm glad to see amiibo dying but Nintendo won't give up on them for a while because it's money for practically no effort.
Hurry up and get here already NX.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE You are happy with amiibo dying? Why?
@Pres_Shinra They're a scam. I forgot to give them their proper title, SCamiibo.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Why are they a scam? They don't lock anything that meaningful behind them and they are good collectables.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Looool i needed my daily dose of hearing somethig stupid. In my country we have this expression "you either are arrested for having a cow or not having". The same for amiibo, if they had much content boooo because they dont have booo... I hate this expression but haters gonna hate...If you dont like just dont buy them.
That isn'ta terrible slump for amiibo. But they need some additional functionality now that there are less new games that use them. Perhaps worlk in som free nintendo land courses that unlock with amiibo? Almost everyone has that game even after it lost pack in status.
Amiibo is a case of supply and demand, the very foundations of capitalism: the marketplace has been flooded with them as a response to 'low stock' to begin with.
Modest sales?
Because not enough people are buying what Nintendo produce, or because Nintendo are not producing enough for people to buy.
Either way it's not good.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE Thanks for the project giant robot update. Don't know if you remember Quorthon or not but I spent about 3 months fighting with him over whether that was a real game or not. I'm guessing since Guard released as a $15 DL Robot still could too. I will be vindicated.
220,000 Wii u in 1 slow April to June quarter x 4 quaters = 880,000 yearly Wii U, yet Nintendo still has only a 800,000 projection for the year. With Paper Mario Color Splash in October and "supposedly" Zelda Wild in March and the holiday shopping period in between. Which makes me think no price drop, no new holiday bundle, no last push. And no Zelda in March. If Wii U can sell 220k in the spring it should be able to sell more than that each quater with any effort at all. So no effort. Or there are literally only 580,000 Wii U left to sell in existence and they haven't made many more in a long time.
So, where are the NES Mini numbers? If they sell 1 million of them over the holiday at $60 each that's $60,000,000 surely that should be mentioned in there somewhere. Unless Nintendo is only making 50,000 to sell b/c they get confused sometimes?
Oh, and congrats to Wii U for passing 13 million sales, with barely a trickle of games, a consistently too high price, bad name, no 3rd party support, no marketing, left to die by its creator like the Frankenstein monster, it still passed a nice round milestone number.
@rjejr well don't go summoning him.
Anyone expect more than this? (The 3DS could've done better if Nintendo had better marketing though, it had a great lineup).
"amiibo struggles"
Good news!
Considering I managed to get most of the Animal Crossing amiibo for £3-4 each on Amazon (£9 for the 3 pack), I think also besides the Smash and maybe the Mario lines, the other amiibo lines are just not that desirable. And now they've met the supply and demand, there's simply no more rush or hurry for collectors to get them before they sell out.
I'm conflicted on amiibo, but still see them as a clever business idea.
I'm wondering whether the delay with the Go Plus device can be capitalised upon. Would it be all that bad to have the brand power of Go receive a boost round about the time a new console is revealed? Deliberate or not, I wait to see what happens.
The issue amiibo has is that people are desperately waiting to finish off their Smash collection and then be done with amiibo. Cloud, Bayonetta and Corrin are nowhere to be seen.
@Sir_JBizzle If by him you mean Q, well that @ wasn't left out by accident. If Project Giant Robot ever actually releases on Wii U I might have to though.
Based on q1 results for wiiu sales - it seems possible wiiu could exceed its 800,000 goal. I'm sure they are expecting a sharp drop off for q4 when the NX is imminent.
@hepgius September is confirmed or just an assumption because of TGS? And yeah, I believe that TGS will be the mark too.
Financial Forecast: DOOM
@liljmoore Well, I collect amiibos, but I don't thinkthat they are good collectables.
Why, because of the lack of a better design in order to get rid of the transparent stick that they use to make them stand. Its plain horrible, and, as all the other Toys-to-life creators have showed, largely unnecessary.
Nintendo sell a lot of systems during the holidays so they might even break their very low WiiU prediction this year. I think it might end up somewhere between 14 - 15 million before the NX launches.
@Sir_JBizzle @rjejr
It's like Beetlejuice. You say his name and he materializes out of thin air.
Please for the love of mercy don't use that @ sign lol
@JaxonH It doesn't matter, seems like every time a person like that goes away another one comes to take his place, the void must be filled. Though lately it seems more like the hydra, cut one off, 2 grow back. Of course its also possible the happier I get the more I notice people crankier than me, I've gotten used to being "that guy". Of course some people will always see me as that guy, but whatever. I'm just looking forward to the Nintendo renassaince.
Maybe not the right place to ask this, but is there some sort of supply issue with the NN3DS XL in the US? I have been trying to get one for over a week in Kansas and can't find one anywhere. A lot of places like Best Buy and Walmart have been showing super low stock or none at all with August 3rd as the date available.
If they only sold 220,000 Wii U's, how come their global total is 13.2 million now as opposed to just over 13 million, as they were on 12.8 million worldwide back on the 30th of March? Genuine question, I just can't figure the maths out
Considering that Nintendo only intends to ship 800,000 Wii Us this entire fiscal year, shipping 220,000 units this quarter was to be expected.
3DS and Wii U software sales being up YoY actually surprised me a bit. The 3DS did get Kirby and Fire Emblem is Europe, so I guess that makes some sense. Wii U got StarFox Zero, Mario & Sonic, and TMS#FE, all three of which sold very little compared to Splatoon.
BTW Pokémon OR/AS and Pokémon X/Y sold 400,000 and 280,000 units this quarter respectively. Sales of both Pokémon titles during the quarter are up YoY, which would suggest that the interest in Pokémon was increasing even before Pokémon Go's release. Pokémon Sun/Moon will very likely be the 3DS's fastest and best selling game.
None of this is surprising really
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