Wii U (Photo : Nintendolife)
Nintendo's first quarter (Q1) earnings for 2016 showed a 31 percent year-over-year (YOY) drop from $853 million to $587 million, and an $87 million operating loss. The Japanese electronics/software company has about a one-third stake in The Pokemon Company and game developer Niantic, but revenue earned from the smash-hit augmented reality (AR) game "Pokémon Go" was not included in the Q1 financial report. In addition, the release of its Pokémon Go Plus accessory has been delayed until September.
Nintendo has claimed that the Yen's increase and foreign exchange rates caused the quarterly loss. However, the company's hardware and software sales also dropped during Q1.
For example, the multi-national company's Wii U console had a YOY sales drop of 53 percent. That brings the total consoles sold to a little over 13 million. In comparison Sony has sold over 40 million PS4 consoles and Microsoft has reportedly sold about half as many Xbox One systems.
Wii U software sales have increased just three percent to 4.7 million units.
Meanwhile, hardware sales for the 3DS portable console dropped seven percent to 940,000 units. Its software rose seven percent to 8.5 million units due to games such as "Kirby: Planet Robobot".
Nintendo's downloadable games and content also showed a YOY sales decrease.
During the past quarter no Nintendo game sold over one million units, according to Ars Technica. This shows how much Wii U's low sales have affected the company's cash flow.
The 3DS is still the best-selling handheld game system on the market. However, the console was launched in February 2011 and has started to seem mundane.
Nintendo's first mobile game "Miitomo" has also not been a major boost to Nintendo's smart devices division. The latter only earned $15 million during Q1 2016.
Nintendo's Pokémon Go Plus accessory will be launched in September. The gaming gadget informs players when they have found a Pokémon without constantly looking down at their phones.
The wearable accessory was originally set to be released in late July. Nintendo reported that the company delayed Pokémon Go Plus as it prepares the application update for the GPS/AR smartphone game to optimize the accessory, according to Polygon.
However, the company still seems to be positive about the future. Its next console codenamed Nintendo NX will include a Nvidia Tegra chip, which is also used for the company's Shield Android TV device and Google's Pixel C tablet.
Here's a video on Nintendo NX:
