Things are definitely not looking bright for Nintendo as the company on Wednesday reported an operating loss of 1.6 billion yen ($15.3 million) for the nine months ending December 31 with a 30 per cent decline in the net income which stood at 10.2 billion yen ($98.8 million) down from 14.55 billion yen a year earlier.
Only 2.4 million units of Wii U consoles were sold during the same period. The sluggish Wii U sales might be the main reason behind the company’s profit tumble, especially after the company decided to slash Wii U prices to lure buyers.
Taking responsibility of the poor performance, top company executives have announced pay cuts in their own salaries. Nintendo’s president, senior managing director, managing director and directors have announced pay cuts in their salaries for five months starting February.
While President Satoru Iwata’s pay will be halved, pay of two other representative directors including Shigeru Miyamoto, will be reduced by 30 per cent. Seven of the other board members will lose 20 per cent of their pay.
As the consumer’s appetite for mobile and tablet gaming has grown tremendously, Nintendo’s unsatisfying strategy and inability to keep up with gaming trends have left it with nothing – that’s what analysts are claiming.
The Super Mario maker recently slashed its Wii U annual sales forecast from 9 million units to just 2.8 million. The company said it expected an operating loss of 35 billion yen ($335.2 million) for the fiscal year ending in March, which is far below the 100 billion yen ($957.7 million) profit forecast made previously.
Stiff competition from other gaming consoles including Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 have also hampered the company’s profit results.
