Nintendo Losses Decrease; 3DS Reaches 19 Million Sold Worldwide

For their first quarter in the ongoing fiscal year (FY2013), Nintendo incurred lower losses than the year prior, as the company makes its way to profitability once more. For starters, as of today, the Nintendo 3DS is no longer being sold at a loss, which was the case thus far, following a steep price cut last year.

So far, the Nintendo 3DS has sold 19 million units worldwide. For this ongoing fiscal year, Nintendo hope to sell 18.5 million 3DS units by the end of March 2013. The system sold 1.86 million units this past first quarter, so that leaves another 16.64 million to go.

While sales of the device are strong in Japan, Nintendo reiterated in their earnings report that the system could do better on a worldwide scale. The plan is for the Nintendo 3DS XL and the upcoming New Super Mario Bros. 2 to revitalize 3DS sales in the west and to further propel sales in Japan.

Also launching this year is the Wii U, which will be released in North America, Japan and Europe. Between the Wii and Wii U, Nintendo plan to sell 10.5 million hardware units by the end of March 2013.

For their first financial quarter that ended on June 30th, Nintendo posted net sales of 84.8 billion yen ($1.09 billion), down from last year’s 93.9 billion yen ($1.20 billion) in the same timeframe. However, they also posted decreased losses at 17.2 billion yen ($220.5 million), reduced from last year’s 25.5 billion yen ($326.5 million) in the same quarter.

Update: 3DS no longer being sold at a loss. Thanks to reader, James Beatty, for pointing this out.