Despite strong Q3 sales, Nintendo has announced that they have reduced their full-year projections by 6.8%. While the drop in projections is obviously disappointing, the publisher is still expected to report a net profit of ¥30 billion ($255 million) for the fiscal year.
A strong slate of 2014 releases is the main reason why Nintendo enjoyed a healthy Q3, as their major franchises continued to sell well. Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire sold a combined 9.35 million units, while Super Smash Bros. for 3DS chipped in an additional 6.19 million copies.
On the Wii U side of things, Super Smash Bros. for Wii U moved 3.39 million units, while Mario Kart 8 continued to be a strong seller, as it has now reached lifetime sales of 4.77 million units worldwide. Nintendo also noted that titles such as Tomodachi Life and Pokemon X & Y had positive sales. In a surprising announcement, the publisher also revealed that third-party sales were up.
However, while software sales were strong, hardware sales saw a significant decrease over the previous year. The Nintendo 3DS sold 7.08 million worldwide over the period, which is down from the 11.65 million it sold back in 2013. Things could be picking up here, though, as the New 3DS has gotten off to a solid start in Japan, and will launch in the United States and Europe later this year.
Sales for the Nintendo Wii U were slightly better over the past year, as the system moved 3.03 million units, which is up from the 2.41 million it solid the prior year. The publisher originally expected the system to sell 3.6 million units over the fiscal year, but it seems that it will not manage to hit that number.
Despite their popularity, Nintendo has not released sales numbers for their Amiibo line of figurines. I imagine that they are selling pretty well for the publisher, though, considering how popular they appear to be on the internet.
No one likes seeing a studio struggle in the sales department, so it’s nice to see that Nintendo appears to be doing better than they were doing last fiscal year. It will be interesting to see how they do in 2015, as this year’s slate of releases is promising, but currently lacks the big-name punch that 2014 had. Of course, if The Legend of Zelda for Wii U sees a release this year, that would certainly provide a boost.