Nintendo has admitted that poor sales of its Wii U games console continue to hamper its business, even after it latest financial results [PDF] included a net profit of $93 million (9.6 billion yen) for the third quarter of 2013.
“The Wii U hardware still has a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits owing mainly to its markdown in the United States and Europe, and sales of software, which has high profit margins, did not grow sufficiently, leading to a gross profit of 149.2 billion yen,” the company said in a statement.
The admission comes as no surprise since the Japanese gaming giant slashed its sales projections for the Wii U by a whopping 69 percent earlier this month. It expects to sell 2.8 million units over the full financial year. That figure currently stands at 2.41 million.
Despite a surprise profit for the period, the outlook for the next quarter is grim. Nintendo expects sales to “decrease significantly” due to deferred tax assets. Nintendo is also factoring in seasonal differences — end-of-year sales and Christmas boosted it in the third quarter — and the rising value of the yen against the US dollar.
Image via Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
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