Nintendo's first fiscal quarter results are in and they don't paint a pretty picture. Despite posting slim profits at ¥8.62 billion (US$88 million) on revenue of ¥81.5 billion ($830 million) during calendar Q2 2013, sales of their Wii U console have fallen off a cliff, with the company reporting just 160,000 units sold across three months and 1.03 million software sales. That's half the number of consoles sold compared to the previous quarter and it puts the total of Wii Us on customers hands at just 3.61 million since launching late last year.
The entirety of Australia and Europe combined only purchased 10,000 Wii Us across the three months, with 60,000 sales coming from the Americas and a majority of 90,000 consoles sold in Japan.
On a better note, Nintendo reported shipping 1.4 million 3DS handheld devices with an additional 11 million software sales boosted by Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The original Wii also posted sales greater than the Wii U, with 210,000 sold for the quarter, alongside 3.67 million software sales, bringing the total Wii sales above 100 million in a significant milestone for the company.
Nintendo says the Wii U's poor performance is partly due to the lack of "key first-party titles" to help sell the console, which still apparently sells at a loss. The company's financial forecast is positive, as they hope major first-party title releases in the second half of the year will help their platform gain momentum. Some of them include The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3D World and Wii Fit U.
For their entire fiscal year, set to end in March 2014, Nintendo is still forecasting nine million Wii U shipments and an overall operating income of ¥100 billion (US$1.02 billion), but only time will tell if they can improve their sales enough to post a profit like that.