Nintendo Reports $455 Million Loss But Has High Hopes For Next Year

[Andy Chalk]

Nintendo Reports $455 Million Loss But Has High Hopes For Next Year

Nintendo ate an operating loss of nearly half a billion dollars for the 2013 fiscal year but still believes the Wii U has what it takes to pull it out of the fire.

Nintendo has released its financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2014, and the numbers are even uglier than expected. In January [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131419-Nintendo-Makes-Major-Reductions-in-Wii-U-3DS-Sales-Projections], the company revised its full-year projection sharply downward, predicting an operating loss of $355 million, but that turned out to be well short of the actual number: a loss of 46.4 billion yen, which works out to roughly $455.3 million.

It came closer in its revised estimate of Wii U unit sales, which it cut from 9 million to 2.8 million in January; actual sales came out to 2.72 million units worldwide. The 3DS in all its various flavors achieved 12.26 million unit sales over the year, slightly lower than the 13.5 million units predicted.

"The Wii U hardware still has a negative impact on Nintendo's profits owing mainly to its markdown in the United States and Europe, and unit sales of software, which has high profit margins, did not grow sufficiently, leading to a gross profit of 163.2 billion yen," Nintendo said. "Total selling, general and administrative expenses exceeded gross profit, resulting in an operating loss of 46.4 billion yen."

Nonetheless, Nintendo isn't throwing in the towel just yet. The Wii U faces a "challenging sales situation," the company said, demonstrating a remarkable talent for understatement, but it will continue to focus on efforts to "stimulate the platform."

"By providing software that takes advantage of the Wii U GamePad, utilizing its built-in functionality as an NFC reader/writer, and adding Nintendo DS Virtual Console titles to the Wii U software lineup, Nintendo will seek to enrich the value of the Wii U GamePad, the most important differentiator of Wii U, and as a result expand the sales of the Wii U platform," the report states.

Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U are expected to be the "two main drivers" of Wii U sales, which Nintendo has forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015 at 3.6 million units - still far from world-beating numbers but a dramatic improvement over the current situation.

Source: Nintendo (PDF) [http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2014/140507e.pdf]


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[Merlark]

I certainly don't hate the console but I think that game pad has been its crutch. its not well used and hinders the system more the enhances it. it makes the other wii-motes feel pretty useless or an add on to the experience. multiplayer games like to force one player to use the pad while everyone else uses the wii-mote.

hopefully the software manages the systems assets better.

 

[Alfredo Jones]

I certainly don't hate the console but I think that game pad has been its crutch. its not well used and hinders the system more the enhances it. it makes the other wii-motes feel pretty useless or an add on to the experience. multiplayer games like to force one player to use the pad while everyone else uses the wii-mote.

hopefully the software manages the systems assets better.

I love the Wii U but the more I've been using it the more I'm kinda agreeing with this statement. I've been using the Pro Controller over the Gamepad more often than not. The only thing I use it for now is to navigate the main Wii U menu. It kind of makes me wonder what it would be like if Nintendo took all the time and money used to make the Gamepad and used it to beef up the main console while shipping the Pro Controller as the default controller.

 

[Something Amyss]

Maybe they'll finally learn that waiting 3-4 years to release the big guns is a bad way to do business these days?

 

[ShenCS]

No wonder they announced new Pokemon games. Crafty devils.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

though the NET LOSS is actually half that. Basically it's the same as they've had before. Not exactly something to get fired up about, especially since they just reminded us "oh yeah, we're remaking Pokemon Sapphire and Ruby." Not exactly a hole Nintendo can't fill with ease.

 

[BloodRed Pixel]

6 Words for Nintendo:
Release the FUCKING SDK for free!

 

[water_bearer]

Get on those gamepad games please! I can barely think of any games I've played on WiiU recently where the gamepad is utilized in an "essential" manner. I really think this asymmetrical gaming thing has some legs, but it doesn't seem like any developers are running with it... lots of crawling and walking mostly.

 

[martyrdrebel27]

it must be dizzying, circling that drain for the past few years. every time i see a nintendo story, i'm shocked by how in denial they are about their situation and place in the market. they are so arrogant and narcissistic, assuming they are as important and powerful as they were in the nineties. when you get to where you're going, tell Sega and Atari I said hello.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Well, that Year of Luigi didn't go all that well then.

 

[VG_Addict]

I don't know how they can have a more successful console after this.

Mario Kart 8 and Smash won't do much.

 

[misg]

I don't know how they can have a more successful console after this.

Mario Kart 8 and Smash won't do much.

I was thinking the same thing. There isn't anything that makes Mario Kart 8, and Smash must buys. They were fun games you liked to have if you owned a Nintendo console, but if you don't it's not going to make you want to buy one... as least in most cases.

 

[EvilRoy]

though the NET LOSS is actually half that. Basically it's the same as they've had before. Not exactly something to get fired up about, especially since they just reminded us "oh yeah, we're remaking Pokemon Sapphire and Ruby." Not exactly a hole Nintendo can't fill with ease.

The net loss is the operating loss, unless you're referring to a figure that includes interest gain/loss and taxes, but I can't see that total being as small as half the operating loss.

 

[Callate]

Well, crap. I'm sorry to hear Nintendo isn't doing well, but then, they haven't really given me a whole lot of reasons to buy a Wii-U, either.

I hope they can turn it around... But I think everyone's still waiting for that killer app. C'mon, guys, you have a unique platform for asymmetrical multiplayer and you've hardly done bupkus with it. Let's get an online splitscreen RTS with four friends playing first-person and one player giving commands, waypoints, and drops with the Game Pad. Let's have a dungeon-hack with the Game Pad player setting out the monsters. Or a brawler where the GamePad player gets to rotate the world. Something!

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

Well, that Year of Luigi didn't go all that well then.

what do you mean? that year was a total failure... just like Luigi!


anyways i honestly dont know what nintendo could do a this point, the best i can do is become the 507th capatain hindsight to point out they shouldnt have bet it all on the casual market, they shouldnt have released a console so underpowered and they shouldnt have relied on what was clearly a gimmick to try and pull the same level of sales and innovation the wii pulled

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

what do you mean? that year was a total failure... just like Luigi!


anyways i honestly dont know what nintendo could do a this point, the best i can do is become the 507th capatain hindsight to point out they shouldnt have bet it all on the casual market, they shouldnt have released a console so underpowered and they shouldnt have relied on what was clearly a gimmick to try and pull the same level of sales and innovation the wii pulled

The "casual" market had nothing to do with it except MAYBE Nintendo should have catered to them MORE instead of expecting the hisorically fickle "hardcore" gamers to come back. Considering how "hardcore" gamers didn't show up and then derided Nintendo every chance they got, the lesson is crystal clear: leave them behind and go your own path because they're all talk.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

what do you mean? that year was a total failure... just like Luigi!


anyways i honestly dont know what nintendo could do a this point, the best i can do is become the 507th capatain hindsight to point out they shouldnt have bet it all on the casual market, they shouldnt have released a console so underpowered and they shouldnt have relied on what was clearly a gimmick to try and pull the same level of sales and innovation the wii pulled

The "casual" market had nothing to do with it except MAYBE Nintendo should have catered to them MORE instead of expecting the hisorically fickle "hardcore" gamers to come back. Considering how "hardcore" gamers didn't show up and then derided Nintendo every chance they got, the lesson is crystal clear: leave them behind and go your own path because they're all talk.

hah! as if nintendo truthly tried cater to the hardcore playerbase

look mate, hardcore players move units, ive seen that kind of shit tons on PC, and i have no reason to think consoles are any different


casuals? one day they are playing on their wii, the next they are playing on facebook, the next on their iphones, they will always jump to the next fad, they are unreliable

 

[NoeL]

I hope they can turn it around... But I think everyone's still waiting for that killer app. C'mon, guys, you have a unique platform for asymmetrical multiplayer and you've hardly done bupkus with it. Let's get an online splitscreen RTS with four friends playing first-person and one player giving commands, waypoints, and drops with the Game Pad. Let's have a dungeon-hack with the Game Pad player setting out the monsters. Or a brawler where the GamePad player gets to rotate the world. Something!

Pretty much this. They've hardly done a damn thing with the gamepad, though to be fair they don't have the manpower to develop a ton of quality gamepad-centric titles alongside the more standard fare that people are familiar/interested in. If third parties have done anything with the gamepad I'm ignorant to it.

Nintendo needs to do what they did with Bayonetta, but instead throw money at as many studios as they can afford to make games that heavily utilise the gamepad (like the ones you mentioned). Get a Dungeons & Dragons game on there where the Dungeon Master wields the pad and drives the game/story. Integrate video gaming with tabletop/board gaming. Bring out a Mario Party game where one player controls Bowser and plays against the other four. Call it Bowser Party [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98AzJT8FlmY]. Done.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Ugh I'll just post a tldr version of what I usually post in stuff like this.

The wii was a fluke because the gimmick looked cool, the new gimmick doesnt look cool, a lot of the customers aren't coming back because they thought the wii sucked or they arent gamers and lost interest, the wiiu launched without a proper zelda or metroid or 64/sunshine/galaxy style mario game or smash bros and only 1 of those has even been announced, aaaaand the wiiu's controller and lack of processing power will keep it from getting ports of multiplatform games made for all the other consoles and PC.

Things look grim and there isn't even any reassurance or promise of much else to make it better coming back from nintendo, even if you were inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.