Nintendo Suffer First Ever Annual Loss

Nintendo have today reported their first ever annual loss, £248m for the year ending March 31st 2012.

It was bad news all round for the Japanese company who saw earnings drop across both hardware and software. Wii sales fell an amazing 50% compared to the previous year, partly due to a lack of software support but also general market saturation, after all the Wii has sold close to a 100m units since its launch. The 3DS continues to improve but overall including DS figures even Nintendo’s handheld sales fell slightly.

Nintendo remains positive though stating that by the middle of the 2013 fiscal year, the 3DS will once again be sold at a profit . Nintendo had actually been losing money on each 3DS sold after they were forced to drop the price due to poor sales, this is standard practice for Microsoft and Sony but something Nintendo had previously managed to avoid.

With the 3DS continuing to sell strongly and the Wii U on the horizon Nintendo say they will return to profitability soon.