Nintendo reports £57m first-quarter loss following Wii U sales disappointment
Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has reported a £57m loss in the first quarter, with an eight per cent sales drop, despite ‘Mario Kart 8’ helping to shift more Wii U consoles.
The eighth entry in the Mario Kart series sold over 2m copies
The Kyoto-based games company’s flagship console, the Wii U, showed growth selling over half a million units, up from 160,000 last year.
This increase has been attributed to the release of 'Mario Kart 8', now bundled with the system, which provided the game-starved console with a much-needed quality title.
Nintendo has been struggling to compete with gaming rivals Sony’s PS4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One despite its usually solid younger audience’s interest in the exclusive Mario and Pokemon titles.
The Wii U, released late in 2012, has sold only 6.68m units, dwarfed by Sony’s 8.7m PS4 sales.
Sales of the Nintendo's handheld gaming system, the 3DS, also plunged to 820,000 from 1.4m during the same time last year.
Nintendo said: “The operating loss was 9.4bn yen because total selling, general and administrative expenses including fixed expenses exceeded gross profit.”
The company remains optimistic with the impending release of exclusive titles - ‘Zelda: Hyrule Warriors’, ‘Super Smash Brothers’ and further Pokemon titles.
It expects to make an operating profit of 40bn yen by the end of the year.