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Shortly after the first birthday of the portable 3DS console, Nintendo has reported the sad truth about its annual losses following a disappointing earnings year for the Japan-based gaming giant.
An E3 announcement of a new home console – the Wii U – did very little to raise public interest in the brand or save the company a net loss of around £284.2 million after the Nintendo 3DS was deemed an epic fail by critics. The company suffered upsetting pre-order numbers before the gaming gadget’s March launch as well as a number of teething problems for its only platform release on 2011.
In the past year the Nintendo 3DS has sold 13.35 million units worldwide, amidst user complaints over the lack of starting games available in the innovative three dimensional format and the visuals were deemed unsafe by heath professional after users suffered headaches and nausea (mostly attributed to excess of advised play). Sales of the classic DS range dropped by two thirds shifting only half of the previous year stick at 5.1 million units. Wii is reported to have reached 9.84 million, a noticeable drop but with the Wii U just around the corner this is unsurprising.
Nintendo is confident that whatever it has in store for the E3 conference in June will turn business around by March 2013 and we’re eager to see if the final Wii U product, with HD tablet controller, is considerably more inspiring than what we saw last year. Nintendo also promises a new Super Mario game in the style of the classics and as we’ve seen with the veteran mascot’s appearances on the 3DS handheld, wherever the plumber goes profits will generally warp.
It’s also worth noting Nintendo’s plan for a global gaming network, akin to Xbox LIVE and the Playstation Network. The Gadget Helpline covered the announcement of the Nintendo Network in a previous article – Here.
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