The company sold only 3.35 million Wiis between April and September, down from 4.97 million in the same time frame of 2010. Game shipments dropped dramatically from 65.2 million last year to 36.5 million units.
The 3DS is not as strong as Nintendo hoped for and sold just 3.07 million units (8.13 million games). The forecast for game sales for the fiscal year was reduced from 70 million to about 50 million. The regularDS console dropped from shipments of 6.69 million to 2.58 million devices. Nintendo said about 29 million DS game units shipped during the quarter, down from 54.8 million in 2010.
"Nintendo faces a very harsh time now" said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments, Bloomberg. "Competition in the video-game industry is getting severe, and Nintendo must fight for customers who are using smartphones and tablets."
Nintendo's quarterly revenue declined by 41 percent to about $2.8 billion; the net loss was about $26 million. The company told analysts that that it may be reporting its first annual loss in 30 years. President Satoru Iwata stressed that the upcoming Wii U will be introduced in June 2012, and there is no doubt that Nintendo will rely on the success of the console to recover from its current struggles.
