Nintendo President Satoru Iwata says he’s sorry for yesterday’s crash-and-burn financial report.
Yesterday was not a good day for Nintendo. The company posted a half-year loss of $932 million and revised its full-year forecast down to a $264 million loss, the first time the company has posted a full-year loss since it began making public financial reports in 1981. Today didn’t get much better for Iwata, who issued a statement taking responsibility for the company’s falling fortunes even as he expressed optimism for the future.
“I feel greatly accountable for missing our financial forecast for the half year ended September and revising downward our forecast for the full year,” he said. “As the worldwide number of pre-orders indicated, the Nintendo 3DS had high expectations from consumers as well as market and industry players. However, the actual sales after the launch did not meet the expectations.”
That failure to meet expectations led to a drastic price cut that goosed 3DS sales but took a big bite out of the bottom line. On the upside, Iwata said the unit is now selling reasonably well and the company expects things to pick up even further in November with the release of “big titles” for the holidays. The Wii also appears to be picking up the pace.
“The U.S. sales of the Wii for the first three weeks of October exceeded those of the corresponding period a year ago,” he said. “[Nintendo of America] also reported that consumers are reacting favorably to the value promotions offered by the retailers. I think this is a good sign for sales growth in the year-end.”
Source: MCV
