Wii U Sales Surpass 12m as Nintendo Profits Climb

Overall, profits reported for the period ending last December were 40,558 million yen (about $336 million), down around a third from last year’s 59,515 million yen ($493).

Thanks to the delay of first Zelda and then Star Fox Zero, Nintendo didn’t really have a centrepiece release on the Wii U for Christmas. Though it was a little light in content when it was first released, Nintendo’s ink-filled shooter has become a firm favourite for just about everybody who owns a Wii U. Or rather, about a third of them.

After delighting fans with Super Mario Maker for the Wii console, Nintendo has launched a wallpaper generator app that lets you bring some of the magic from the game to your desktop. The results show Nintendo suffered during the holidays when game sales are usually strong.

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, released in July in Japan and late September / early October in the West, has sold 2.93 million. This puts it far behind PlayStation 4, which according to Sony has sold over 35.9 million units.

The 3DS handheld machine fared better, with Nintendo selling 5.88 million during the nine months.

“With respect to Wii U, Splatoon sold 4.06 million units and Super Mario Maker sold 3.34 million units, making both titles blockbusters that vitalized the Wii U platform”, Nintendo said. Though the company has not been able to meet its quarterly targets, the company maintains its yearly operating profit target at 50 billion yen on 570 billion yen of revenues. The company confirmed past year that the Nintendo NX is its forthcoming next-generation video game console.

The financial report says nothing about Nintendo’s plan for the NX console or smartphone games, but there should be an investors call this week which may reveal some fresh details…