The Nintendo Wii U next generation console is doing pretty well for itself. Nintendo announced that it has sold over 3 million Wii U units since the system launched back in November of 2012. However, it wasn't enough to stop the company from taking a hit.
Worldwide, Nintendo sold over 3 million Wii U units, of which 1.3 million sold in North America alone. As for titles, Nintendo Land and the new Super Mario Bros. U have sold over 2 million copies, which is not too shabby considering these games are not of the hardcore variety.
Despite the Wii U doing well at retail, Nintendo is still expected to lose a truck load of money when the company drops its financial report. Nintendo was aiming to make around 20 billion yen, but all that changed and now the company is looking to lose a massive 37 billion yen instead.
Why is this, you wonder?
"The earnings forecast has been modified to reflect a lower-than-expected sales outlook based on the sales performance in the year-end sales season and afterward. Also, exchange rate assumptions have been revised from 80 yen to 90 yen per U.S. dollar, and from 100 yen to 120 yen per euro, in consideration of the trend of the recent exchange rate situation," Nintendo said.
The 37 billion loss is attributed to the low sales of the Wii, which struggles to keep up with the Xbox 360 and PS3 on a monthly basis. Another factor is the Wii U. Nintendo had hoped to sell 5.5 million units by March, but that forecast fell to 4 million units due to Nintendo's inability to meet demands properly.
The only thing that is able to spur Wii U sales, is the availability of some good games. A price drop would also temporarily solve that problem. I mean, look at the Wii. Nintendo dropped the price and it sold well for a while before going back to struggling for attention. That's why it's temporary.