Nintendo Lower Nintendo 3DS And Wii U Sales Forecast

In their last financial report, Nintendo forecast that they would sell 5.5 million Wii U systems from its November launch to March 31st, 2013 and and 17.5 Nintendo 3DS systems between April 1st, 2012 and March 31st, 2013. This forecast has now been revised.

Nintendo’s earnings release for their third financial quarter, which ended December 31st, 2012, includes a revised forecast for both systems:

Wii U – 4 million by March 31st, 2013

Nintendo 3DS – 15 million by March 31st, 2013

This is the second time Nintendo have had to lower their 3DS forecast for the ongoing financial year. Originally, the plan was to sell 18.5 million 3DS systems by March 31st (then down to 17.5 and now to 15 million).

Thus far, the Nintendo 3DS has sold 12.71 million units worldwide this financial year, with total worldwide sales at 28.84 million units. Nintendo president, Satoru Iwata, has admitted in the past that there’s room for the system’s performance to improve in western territories.

Meanwhile, the Wii U has sold 3.06 million units worldwide thus far.

On the bright side, Nintendo’s profit forecasts have actually increased for the ongoing financial year. The company previously cut its profit forecast in half, revising it from 20 billion yen to just 6 billion yen. This figure has now increased to 14 billion yen (about $153.8 million). The reason for the change is due to gains from the currency exchange rate between the Yen, Euro and Dollar.

While profits are up, the overall revenue forecast for Nintendo has been revised, now down from 810 billion yen ($8.9 billion) to 670 billion yen ($7.4 billion).