Nintendo Financial Results – Nine-Month Period Ended December 2015

2 February 20162 February 2016 Lite_Agent Nintendo Financial Results

Today, Nintendo revealed its results for the Nine-Month Period Ended December 2015 (April 1st, 2015 / December 31st, 2015), and good news: the company is still in the black, but pretty much everything is down except Operating income.

Let’s start with some raw data:

Net sales: 425,664 million Yen (3.233 billion € / 2.456 billion £ / 3.511 billion $), -3.9% compared to the same period in 2014 (442,920 million Yen, -11.3% compared to the same period in 2013);
Operating income: 42,485 million Yen (322 million € / 245 million £ / 350 million $), vs 31,604 million Yen during the same period in 2014;
Ordinary income: 55,295 million Yen (420 million € / 319 million £ / 456 million $), -40.1% compared to the same period in 2014 (92,356 million Yen)
Profit attributable to owners of parent: 40,558 million Yen (308 million € / 234 million £ / 334 million $), -31.9% compared to the same period in 2014 (40,558 million Yen)
Digital sales: 30.5 billion Yen (231 million € / 175 million £ / 251 million $), vs 21.1 billion Yen during the same period in 2014.

These graphs show the proportion of Software / Hardware in sales, but also the geographical breakdown of sales. Both Japan and North America are slightly up Year on Year, and only Europe (+ Others) is down.

Hardware / Software Sales

Nintendo 3DS: 3.60 million during Q3 2015-16 / 5.88 million for the current Fiscal Year / 57.94 million since launch
Nintendo 3DS (Software): 19.67 million during Q3 2015-16 / 38.87 million for the current Fiscal Year / 264.53 million since launch
Wii U: 1.87 million during Q3 2015-16 / 3.06 million for the current Fiscal Year / 12.60 million since launch
Wii U (Software): 10.25 million during Q3 2015-16 / 22.62 million for the current Fiscal Year / 79.30 million sine launch

Here’s some details about Nintendo 3DS sales:

Nintendo 3DS – 26,170,000
Nintendo 3DS XL – 19,590,000
New Nintendo 3DS XL – 5,800,000
Nintendo 2DS – 4,670,000
New Nintendo 3DS – 1,710,000

Nintendo comments

Nintendo explains that the New Nintendo 3DS and the New Nintendo 3DS XL made up the bulk of Nintendo 3DS during the nine months period ended December 31st 2015. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer was a real success, with 2.93 million units sold worldwide. In Europe and North America, Pokémon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS showed steady sales, even though they were launched last year.

Meanwhile, in Japan, titles such as Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ and Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright / Conquest showed strong sales, just like several key titles from third-party publishers.

As for the Wii U, it sales were boosted by two key titles: Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, which sold 4.06 million and 3.34 million units respectively. Quite surprisingly, Yoshi’s Woolly World was also successful enough to make it to the list of million-sellers, while Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U showed “steady sales”.

Next: amiibo. Nintendo’s NFC figurines and cards just kept on selling, with:

20.50 million amiibo sold
21.5 million amiibo cards sold

Sales of downloadable content (games, DLC, etc.) also increased compared to the same period in 2013-14, with 30.5 billion Yen during the current Fiscal Year (16.4% of total sales).

Forecast

Nintendo 3DS

For the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo mentions the release of several bundles (such as the Nintendo 2DS Packs in Europe and Japan), to be released for the 20th Anniversary of the Pokémon franchise. There’s also Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympics, and several “key titles from third-party publishers”.

Wii U

On Wii U, the company will maintain the attention level of titles such as Super Mario Maker and Splatoon, who really helped Wii U sales (both Hardware and Software). They will also introduce titles such as the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD.

amiibo

To maintain momentum, Nintendo is going to keep introducing new figurines, but also introduce “new gaming experiences with the use of amiibo”. It’s what Nintendo already mentioned previously: most people buying amiibo are using them as collector’s items, not to enhance gameplay, and the company wants to change that.

Finally, Nintendo will launch their first mobile app before the end of the current Fiscal Year (in March). No change has been made to the consolidated financial forecast for this fiscal year (which was originally announced on May 7, 2015).

Source: Nintendo