Nintendo posts Q1 net profit, Wii U shipped 160K worldwide

by Sinan Kubba on Jul 31st 2013 4:00AM

Despite a 3.8 percent year-on-year drop in revenue, Nintendo posted a healthy ¥8.62 billion net profit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, or just under $88 million. However, the concern for the company must be the new low Wii U shipments dropped to. The console only shifted 160,000 units across the three months, less than half the figure of the previous quarter, leaving it at 3.61 million shipped to date.

Nintendo attributed the Q1 net profit to substantial currency exchange gains due to the depreciating value of the yen, although it also noted better profitability on 3DS hardware contributed to increased gross profit. Nintendo forecasts its net profit to rise to ¥55 billion by the end of the fiscal year, around $562 million.

The Wii U, which Nintendo noted still sells at a loss, struggled severely, as did its games with just over 1 million software units shifted worldwide in the three months ending in June 2013. Nintendo put its poor performance down to "few key first-party titles this quarter to strongly drive the hardware sales," and reiterated its intent to amend that in the second half of 2013 and through to next year. Nintendo still forecasts 9 million Wii U shipments across the fiscal year of April 2013 to March 2014.

News is rosier on Nintendo's portable side, with the 3DS shipping 1.4 million hardware units and just over 11 million software units in Q1. A significant contributor to the software numbers was Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which after coming to the west this summer added just over 1.5 million worldwide across the quarter. Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon was another important asset, shipping 1.43 million units. Animal Crossing: New Leaf now has life-to-date global figures of 5.4 million, while Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon is at 2.65 million.

Finally, the Wii reached a significant landmark, shipping a further 210,000 units worldwide to take it to the 100 million mark.

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Ubisoft shipped 13 million Just Dance games in 2011, nearly 7 million Assassin's Creed: Revelations

by JC Fletcher on Feb 15th 2012 1:00PM

Ubisoft announced big numbers for two of its major franchises in its latest earnings report -- two franchises that, dare we say it, are crying out for a crossover. The publisher reported a "near-30% increase" in dance game sales, including more than 13 million units shipped of its dance games -- a group including multiple Just Dances, and various celebrity "The Experience" games.

Assassin's Creed Revelations, the forty-third Assassin's Creed game starring Ezio, hit "close to 7 million sell-in units," exceeding internal forecasts and, according to Ubisoft, hitting the #7 spot in worldwide sales for the year.

That should provide a clue as to why Ubisoft is continuing the franchise with Assassin's Creed 3, in which Desmond has to prepare for a date by reliving Ezio's advanced dance lessons. Okay, that last part was just us dreaming of a crossover again.

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