Nintendo ceded the gaming consoles market to Sony and Microsoft

Nintendo said that in the nine months that ended December 31, 2013, it sold only 2.4 million Wii U game consoles. This is much less than the competition: in six weeks, Sony and Microsoft sold to retailers 4.2 and 3.9 million boxes.

Low sales have a negative effect on the financial situation of the oldest Japanese video game company. For the first nine months of the reporting year, the company's profit fell by 30 percent. This was due to lower demand for the Wii U console. Sales of software and hardware 3DS helped prevent the financial collapse of Nintendo. The handheld game console brought the company a profit of 10.2 billion yen, which is approximately $ 99 million.

As stated in Nintendo, over the next five months, the company's management will go to lower wages. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata will cut his salary in half, while director Shigeru Miyamoto is expected to drop 30 percent. The remuneration for the work of the seven remaining chairmen of the board of directors was decided to be reduced by 20 percent.

Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One are the most advanced gaming consoles to date. If sales of these cars started in November, then Wii U appeared on the market in the fall of 2012 and during that time managed to bore gamers.

As much as Nintendo would like, 3DS does not catch up on sales of tablets and smartphones. For comparison, Apple alone sold 51 million iPhones and 26 million iPads for the fourth calendar quarter.

At the end of the fiscal year, which falls on March 31, Nintendo predicts a loss of $ 242 million, although the company had previously expected a profit of 532 million. Few people foresaw such a turn of events. Against this background, Nintendo lowered the forecast for annual sales of the Wii U from 9 to 2.8 million copies. She also had to revise the sales forecast for 3DS from 18 to 13.5 million units.

The rapid growth of the tablet and smartphone market has forced Nintendo to change its development strategy. According to unconfirmed information, the company is already preparing a demo version of its games for mobile devices.

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/business-analitics/nintendo-ustupila-rynok-igrovyx-konsolej-kompaniyam-sony-i-microsoft.html.