Nintendo Reports Sales Decline as Amiibo, Wii U Software Interest Drops Off

Pokemon Go generates interest in existing games and helps 3DS sales improve.

Nintendo has detailed its financial results for the six-month period spanning April 1 to September 30, 2016, reporting a decline in sales compared to the same period in 2015.

In its latest earnings report, sales were cited as $1.3 billion, which is around a 33 percent decline from 2015's $1.9 billion. Operating income, meanwhile, also decreased, coming in at around $57 million in 2016, which is approximately a 33 percent drop from 2015's $86 million.

Nintendo managed to make a profit by selling the Seattle Mariners baseball team, which it said it "recorded gain on sales of investment securities" totalling [$595 million]. The release of Pokemon Go was said to have "led to increased sales of software in the Pokemon series released in the past and drove the Nintendo 3DS family hardware sales growth, particularly outside of Japan."

Sales of the 3DS for the period were reported as 2.7 million units, which is an increase over the previous year.

In the statement accompanying the report, Nintendo explained that, for the Wii U, there "were no hit titles this period to compare with Splatoon and Super Mario Maker last year," which resulted in the decrease in software sales for the platform.

Sales of the Amiibo were also cited as a slipping owing to a decreased number of games supporting them. Amiibo sales "were reduced to 3.8 million units for figure-type and 1.7 million for card type." Additionally, "fewer offerings of downloadable content during this period" also resulted in much less digital sales than last year.

During this six month period Nintendo sold 560,000 Wii U consoles. In 2015 it managed to sell 1.1 million units.

Looking ahead, Nintendo highlighted the upcoming launch of Pokemon Sun/Moon as well as the 3DS version of Super Mario Maker for 3DS. Other upcoming releases that were mentioned include the NES Classic Edition, which will be available in November, and Super Mario Run, a mobile title launching on iOS later this year.

Although the company's next platform, the Nintendo Switch, was mentioned, it simply said it would be available in March 2017.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-reports-sales-decline-as-amiibo-wii-u-sof/1100-6444803/

Outside of 3DS and Pokemon, nothing impressive and unexpected.To increase amiibo sales, its as easy as making a game that revolves around them.Make the game free(downloadable), and there you go!

Hopefully this sacrifice for the Switch will be worth it!

Aaaaaand they better confirm again about that Corrin and Cloud Amiibo! Which should launch the same time as Bayonetta!

They really need to push Amiibo out the gate with the Switch. Give it a separate marketing campaign on children's media while still running ads focused on older consumers elsewhere.

WiiU being laid to rest, rightfully so. All future efforts to focus solely on the Switch.

Just hoping the gamepad is made backwards compatible.

Well, not surprising. The Switch is too close to make people care that much about the U anymore, and amiibos need games to work on to be able to sell. I'm sure Nintendo will make that free to play Amiibo game for the Switch, and it will push a lot of those, plus giving people reasons to get them if little rewards aren't enough.

Pokemon X/Y is also at 15.64m now, surpassing Black/White (15.62m). Still exactl 2m behind Diamond/Pearl though. OmegaRuby/AlphaSapphire (13.18m) blew past HeartGold/SoulSilver (12.72m) as well, that game's doing pretty amazing.

Zelda doesn't sell enough sadly, we'll never know real numbers for the 3DS games and TPHD...

EDIT: Was thinking I was posting this in the "Mario Kart 8 at 8m" thread... But I guess it's still fairly on-topic here as well.

And I honestly think the Amiibos have to come down in price especially if trying to push it with new hardware to help offset the cost.

NEW 30th Anniversary Zelda Amiibo!!!!

Not surprising. There hasn't been new worthwhile amiibo released in a long time, so of course sales are going to drop. People who wanted their favs likely got them already. They can't sell Amiibo when they don't have new ones to sell. I'm sure things would pick up if they released Bayonetta and Cloud, at least. >: T

And Wii U software decline.... yeah, no surprise either. There's hardly any new software, so there isn't much to buy.