Nintendo reports its first profitable year since 2011

By Kris Wouk May 7, 2015

nintendo nx mobile games e3 2015 stale ideas for reinvention — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Despite its valuable brand, Nintendo has had a rough few years. The Wii U hasn’t sold nearly as well as its predecessor, and while the Nintendo 3DS and now New Nintendo 3DS are good sellers, that hasn’t been enough to keep the company from reporting annual losses. Until now, that is.

For the first time since 2011, Nintendo has announced a profit. Specifically, it saw a ¥41 billion ($350 million) profit for the last fiscal year ending March 31. This stands in stark contrast to last year, which saw losses of ¥23 billion ($193 million).

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Worldwide sales of the Nintendo 3DS family reached 8.7 million units in the last year. The New Nintendo 3DS and New Nintendo 3DS XL “got off to a good start and continued to sell well,” according to Nintendo’s latest financial report (PDF link). Despite good sales, sales of older models in the 3DS family “did not grow as anticipated.”

Looking at game sales, Pokémon Omega Ruby / Pokémon Alpha Sapphire sold 9.94 million units, while Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS sold 6.75 million units. Tomodachi Life, Mario Kart 7, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D each sold more than 2 million units.

The Wii U didn’t sell nearly as well as the 3DS at 3.38 million units, though games for the system sold well. Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U sold 5.11 and 3.65 million units respectively. Combined sales of Wii U software totaled 24.40 million units.

Wii U sales are still lagging well behind the original Wii. As of March 31, it had only sold just over 9.5 million units worldwide, while the Wii has sold over 100 million (PDF link).

Looking toward the next fiscal year, Nintendo expects to make a profit of ¥35 billion ($293 million). The company is expecting its deal with DeNA to sell smartphone games to be a nice new source of revenue, and expects new Amiibo cards and yarn-knitted Amiibo figures to increase Amiibo sales.

Nintendo also has other plans for diversification in the works. Today it announced that it will bring Nintendo-themed rides and attractions to Universal theme parks.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

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