Nintendo Posts $241M Profit But Misses Estimates As Revenue Drops 18%

Nintendo may have big plans for 2016, but, in its first finance report of the calendar year, the company missed estimates for its third quarter 2015. The Japanese firm posted a 29 billion JPY ($241 million) profit for the period on overall income of 221 billion JPY ($1.8 billion), that’s down 18 percent and 36 percent year-on-year respectively.

Nintendo’s results came in below industry watchers’ expectations, with analysts polled by FactSet anticipating 252.6 billion JPY in revenue and a 33.2 billion JPY profit for the period.

The last three months were a relatively uneventful time for Nintendo, with no major game releases during the period. That’s likely to be the quiet before the storm, however, with Nintendo preparing to release its next games console — dubbed the NX — later this year. It is also close to unveiling its highly-anticipated first smartphone game, built in partnership with Japan’s DNA, which should arrive around March following an initial delay.

Nintendo sold 1.87 million Wii U games consoles in Q3 2015, a figure that is two percent lower than one year ago, while older titles like Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros were “steady” performers, alongside newer release Yoshi’s Woolly World. Wii U fans are loyal types, but the fact remains that there aren’t a huge number of them.

To date, Nintendo has sold 12.6 million Wii U units since its introduction over three years ago. That’s fewer than Sony and Microsoft, which have shifted over 30 million and 15 million of their respective flagship consoles, both of which came to market later.