Nintendo Hardware, Net Sales Drop

Nintendo has released its balance sheet for the 2010 fiscal year today, and it highlights the tough year the company has had over the last 12 months. Net income and sales figures have all fallen year-on-year.

Between April 2009 and March 2010, Nintendo has sold 20.5m Wii consoles and 27.1m DS handhelds (including DSi and DSi XL) worldwide. This contrasts with 25.9m Wii and 31.1m DS units sold in the same period from 2008-2009. The company said that Wii sales "lagged" in particular until the holiday season, and the company has set its 2011 forecast for Wii sales at 'only' 18m as a result. It expects to sell 30m DS handhelds over the next year.

The recent Wii price drop, fewer AAA Wii releases and the strength of the Yen were blamed for the drop in sales - Nintendo's net sales for the 2010 period were 1,434.3 billion yen (or $15.3 billion) compared to 1,838.6 billion ($19.5m USD) yen the year before. Overseas sales accounted for nearly 85% of the year's total.

It wasn't all bad news though. Nintendo announced that several of its first-party releases had hit multi-million sales status, including Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii. DS sales in the Americas broke the annual hardware sales record in the area with 12.29 million units, while lifetime sales-to-date have surpassed 128.8 million - beating the sales record of its Game Boy series. The Wii has achieved nearly 71 million units lifetime-to-date.

The company was keen to look ahead to the future, having underlined the troubles of the last 12 months, by re-affirming its previous announcement of the 3DS handheld system. The next year will also see new versions of Pokemon, Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2, along with an expansion of the WiFi-enabled 'Nintendo Zone', which provides free downloadable content to DS consoles. The bizarre Wii Vitality Sensor was also mentioned.

Ultimately, the company says that its goal is to achieve "the ultimate worldwide objective of 'must-have for everyone' rather than 'must-have for every family.'"

So, what of the year ahead? Basically Nintendo expects little to change. The company states that, "With regard to consolidated performance forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 2011, net sales are 1,400 billion yen ($15b)".