Nintendo Report Drop in Profits

Japanese company Nintendo has reported a drop in profits, after some pretty poor game sales on the Wii U.

The gaming giant has been around since the early 70s. Its net income for the September to December quarter was 29.1 billion yen (approximately $241m; £168m) – 36% lower than for the same period in 2014. These numbers are sure to put pressure on the company to formally announce their newest console.

Nintendo did, however, point out the success of Splatoon, its ink based shooter, which sold a combined 7.4 million copies. However, a company watcher said total sales of all games on Wii U was disappointing, with only a total 10.25 million sales to date on the Wii U, despite the recent Christmas period.

“The history of how the Wii U was marketed and users’ actual experiences have not lived up to expectations,” said Piers Harding-Rolls, from the IHS consultancy.

“Even with some compelling games like Splatoon, they still haven’t managed to drive sales of the platform.”

Nintendo’s former Chief Executive Satoru Iwata died last July of cancer, and before his death, had announced plans for a “non-wearable way to monitor health,” but the company have yet to announce a product related to this.

Even as a PC gamer, it’s still sad to see what is essentially a company’s baby be cast aside for other consoles. Things like Mario Maker might have taken the trophy for a while, but the Wii U was outdated when it was released in November 2012.

The games simply can’t keep up, and as easy as it would be to release a few more Mario or Zelda titles, people will get tired of the same old IPs.

Hopefully, Nintendo can pull something out of the bag at E3 this year, or they may be left behind in the console wars.