Nintendo just released their financial results for the second quarter of 2012, and while the overall picture is looking better, the company still saw a $220 million loss during the period. It managed to sell some 1.8 million 3DS consoles and a scant 750,000 Wii consoles.
Nintendo also revealed that the company expects to sell about 10.5 million Wii U and Wii consoles by March 2013. Wii sales are declining and will likely see an even sharper drop once the Wii U is released, so it’s easy to assume that Wii U will make up for the vast majority of the 10.5 million consoles that Nintendo expects to sell. Of the 10.5 million consoles, we estimate that the Wii U will account for about 8 million of those. That’s 8 million Wii U consoles Nintendo expects to sell by March 2013. Which is roughly 2 million per month, if it launches in late November, as everyone thinks it will.
One of the big news was that Nintendo is no longer selling the 3DS at a loss, which will improve the bottom line going into the next quarter. The company previously pointed out that they won’t be selling the Wii U at a loss when it launches later this year. Over the past few months, the company noted several times that the Wii U price at launch will be the key to success. Company president Satoru Iwata recently said that “being to market first isn’t important, what’s important is the launch price”.
