Nintendo Makes Small Profit Despite Faltering Wii U Sales

Nintendo Makes A Small Profit As Console Sales Slow To A Halt
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Nintendo has announced another tough year, reporting falls in sales and a stuttering launch for its new Wii U console.

The Japanese gaming giant said that profits for the year were half of what it had hoped for, down 1.9% over 12 months.

Overall the company made a marginal profit of £46 million for the year, though that was largely due to "foreign exchange gains in non-operating income" and not direct revenue generators like games or consoles.

That comes despite its launch of the new Wii U, which with its touchscreen controller and HD games, including hits with iconic characters Mario and Luigi, failed to excite shoppers.

Nintendo said the Wii U had sold just 3.45 million units worldwide, and only 390,000 since December.

That's compared to an initial expectation of 5.5 million units, reduced to 4 million in January.

Meanwhile the company's handheld 3DS performed better, with 31.09 million units sold and 95 million games. But Nintendo said that it had "not generated sufficient sales momentum" in North America and Europe.

A raft of new games for both platforms, including Wii U instalments of Mario Kart and Zelda and a new 3DS Pokemon game will attempt to shift that momentum in 2013.

Nintendo said it wants to sell 9 million Wii U's in 2013 and 18 million 3DS systems, which will be a stretch given its performance so far.