Strong Yen Lowers Nintendo’s Revenues, Wii U Released by Holidays 2012

Nintendo’s had a see-saw kind of year, what with lowered revenue projections, profit loss, and the release of a new system that stalled at first, then caught fire in a clutch. The company’s trials and tribulations seem to be continuing, as they’ve revealed even lower revenues than expected today due to the yen being stronger than they’d predicted.

According to a post on Gamasutra, Nintendo has increased its forecasted losses for the 2012 fiscal year; where they’d projected a loss of 20 billion yen, or $258 million, the company predicts a loss of 65 billion yen, or $837 million, for the 2012 fiscal year ending in March. Sales forecasts were similarly over-predicted, and have been revised “from 790 billion yen ($10.2 billion) to 660 billion yen ($8.5 billion)”

It’s true that there’s still some time before the fiscal year comes to a close, but it’s doubtful that they’ll make up so much ground between now and March 31.

Sales predictions for the 3DS have also been lowered—while Nintendo projected 50 million sales by the end of the fiscal year, that number is now 38 million.

But, you know, 38 million still ain’t half bad. Just saying.

Even with all this doom and gloom, it’s important to put a few things in perspective—namely, this is the first annual loss the company has ever taken. Yes, it’s a bad loss, but a lot of that is due to the fact that the company relies heavily on overseas sales, and a strong yen means that it takes more dollars than it has in the past to make the same amount in the company’s native currency.

Not only that, but the company has managed to catch some momentum with sales of the 3DS and software during this past holiday season.

In fact, the company has announced that the new Wii U console will be released in time for the holidays in 2012. It’s important to note, though, that this isn’t quite confirmation of a ship date. It’s still entirely possible that the Wii U will come out earlier in the year and just be out on shelves by the holidays—though I wouldn’t be surprised if the company put most of its marketing muscle behind the 3DS for the rest of the year until the holidays, when the Wii U would still likely get the drop on any competition from Sony or Microsoft.

In short, things ain’t so good. But hopefully the next fiscal year will see things getting a bit better.

Via Gamasutra