By the hammer of Thor...

Seriously, though, as a number of people have already pointed out, what made this situation sososo worse is the drastic-ness of this reduction. 9m -> 2.8m is admitting that you were almost as wrong as you could possibly be and didn't see it - or were too ignorant to admit it - until the last possible moment. And that's definitely not a good position to be in. A series of less drastic cut backs over the past 3 financial reports would've made this situation slightly more tolerable. People like me would still mock him for being so off the mark to begin with but at least it would show he realised before now what dire straights the Wii-U is in.

The projected loss is surprising though. I'd have thought they would be able to maintain profitability through this, especially with some big software hits from the 3DS and still relatively decent sales from that.

I don't know what to think about removing Iwata. Personally, I like and dislike a great number of things about the guy, probably in equal measure on both. He does a hell of a lot of good and a hell of a lot of bad. I think I'd like to see what someone else could do at the helm, though.

Wow, this is a big deal. Not because the loss is so big (Nintendo could post losses like this for the next 50 years and still be around) but because this a year Nintendo should be raking it in. 3DS should be in its peak for revenue and Wii U is in year 2. But Wii U bombed this year and it's dragging the business down. For better or worse, I expect big changes. I only hope they are for the better.

As far as Iwata goes, I think he's done a fairly good job. But he's failed on a couple fronts, the single biggest one being sitting on cash. They should have purchased several AAA studios - or started them - 3 years ago and had them focus on HD software development. They have also missed on the trend of the industry right now somewhat, messing up the Wii U design a little (though the tablet idea had its heart in the right place). The botched Wii U launch, between design, lack of preparation, lack of software, poor software choice, terrible marketing... is a major error. Nintendo needs the US to be a major market, and it really seems like they should have pumped some money into NoA, allowing it to pick up some studios, do better marketing, buy some exclusives or other initiatives to battle Sony and MS in this market.

That's pretty obvious