Nintendo today released its financial results for the period April-June 2010, and amidst all the boring stuff are some points of genuine interest.
Money Comes, Money Goes
First up, Nintendo continues to see a massive decline in both net sales and operating income, the former down 25% from the same point last year, the latter down 45%. Most importantly, the company actually posted a loss for the quarter of around USD$290 million, a big slide from the same time last year when the company made a USD$480 million profit.
You may think this is down to a decline in Wii sales, but it’s not; instead, Wii sales actually increased over the same period in 2009, but dips in DS sales, as well as software for both the DS and Wii (not to mention foreign currency fluctuations) accounted for the decline.
https://kotaku.com/wii-sales-down-21-in-a-single-year-5532274
Sales Figures
The big sellers for the quarter were (all figures are worldwide:
Super Mario Galaxy 2 – 4 million
Wii Sports Resort – 3 million
Wii Sports – 2.7 million
Wii Fit Plus – 1.8 million
Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver – 1.7 million
New Super Mario Bros. Wii – 1.1 million
Release Dates
You can never take anything to the bank from the release schedules in Nintendo’s financial results, because they’re never intended to be truly authoritative, but there are still some interesting points of note.
– The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, which we already figured was coming in 2011 in the West, is listed as “TBA” in Japan (and “2011” for both North America & Europe). Could Nintendo be trying for a Christmas launch for the game in its home territory?
– The Last Story, an RPG from Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy, is listed as “2010” for Japan but is not listed for a Western release, suggesting any such version would be a 2011 title.
– Monado: Beginning of the World (ie, Xenoblade): Are you ever coming out over here? Because you’re still listed as “TBA”.
https://kotaku.com/nintendos-wii-rpg-monado-beginning-of-the-world-in-pic-5276345
