Nintendo Posts First-Half Losses of $932 Million USD

Nintendo was once a company that seemed to generate huge revenue regardless of what it did, but with its latest financial report showing a loss of $923 million USD for the first half of the company’s fiscal year, it looks like things have begun to change. Nintendo cites the strong Yen and the lackluster response to its 3DS handheld as the biggest reasons for the decline.

The company has also gone on to project a $281 million loss for the second half of its fiscal year, which would effectively mark the first time since 1981 that an annual loss has occurred. This is a major change of events given the success that Nintendo’s Wii console experienced, where the revenue gained put both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 to shame for quite some time. So what’s next for Nintendo to help fix this situation?

I’m not sure even Nintendo knows at this point. These kinds of losses are hard to ignore, but when you look at the big picture, they’re not surprising. The Wii sold in droves, but as Brett pointed out in an editorial this past summer, there were no good games to sustain the console through its life. Many people owned the Wii, but few ever turned it on after a while.

At the same time, the 3DS, Nintendo’s first “3D” console, simply flopped. In general, it wasn’t a revolutionary unit compared to the original DS, only adding beefier power and a 3D effect. That wasn’t enough to help units fly off the shelves – likely due once again to a slim selection of quality titles.

Here we have two radical departures from typical gaming systems, one that succeeded at first, and then another that flopped from the get-go. Nintendo’s next console? The Wii U… one that should perform on par with an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 performance-wise, and has controllers that double as portable gaming devices. Given the history of the original Wii and also the 3DS, does the Wii U have a chance to succeed?

If its game selection continues down the same road as the original Wii, I don’t see this console selling well at all. Nintendo needs to take a greater interest in its third-party publishers as far as I am concerned, and also consider other avenues that haven’t been explored before. Easier said than done.