Nintendo has been forced to cut its hardware sales projections for both the Wii U and the 3DS, following lower-than-expected sales in the last fiscal quarter.
The company had originally projected that it would sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles during the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013 -- however, it has now cut that figure down to 4 million.
As for the 3DS handheld, Nintendo now expects to sell 15 million units during this fiscal year, compared to its previous estimate of 17.5 million. The Nintendo DS is expected to sell 2.3 million units during this fiscal year, down from previous expectations of 2.5 million.
Notably, however, the company has in fact raised its profit projections for the full fiscal year. Where it had originally slashed its profit estimates to 6 billion yen ($75.2 million), the company now expects to see profits of 14 billion yen ($153.8 million). The company put this return to profitability down mainly to foreign currency exchange gains.
At the same time, Nintendo has cut its revenue projections for the full fiscal year, down to 670 billion yen ($7.4 billion) from the previously estimated 810 billion yen ($8.9 billion).
For the nine months ended December 31, 2012, Nintendo posted revenue of 543 billion yen ($6.0 billion), down 2.4 percent year-over-year, and profits of 14.5 billion yen ($159.7 million), compared to losses of 48.3 billion yen ($531.6 million) year-over-year.
Nintendo cuts Wii U, 3DS sales projections for full fiscal year
Nintendo has been forced to cut its current fiscal year hardware sales projections for both the Wii U and the 3DS, following lower-than-expected sales in the last fiscal quarter.