Things haven’t been going well for Nintendo, announces new console in 2017

Daniel Howley
·Technology Editor
Nintendo reported its FY2016 earnings with a drop in profit, but announced its new console will land in March 2017. (image: Nintendo)

Things haven’t exactly been going well for Nintendo (NTDOY) over the last few years. And after releasing its fiscal year end statement, things at the house that Mario built look mighty grim. But there is a silver lining to the company’s recent woes.

First: the bad news. Nintendo’s net profit plummeted by 61% in fiscal year 2016 to ¥16.5 billion, or $148 million. Last fiscal year, the company saw net profits of ¥41.8 billion, or $376 million.

The loss can be attributed to Nintendo’s falling sales numbers, due to a lack of compelling content and the poor performance of the Wii U console.

Net sales for the company fell by 8% in FY16 to ¥504 billion ($4.5 billion) from ¥550 billion ($4.9 billion) in FY15.

To say Nintendo has been having a rough go at it compared to the halcyon days of the original Wii and Nintendo DS is an understatement.

To date, the company has sold just 12.8 million Wii U consoles. Those are paltry numbers compared to Sony, which sold 36 million PlayStation 4 consoles, and Microsoft, which has sold 20 million Xbox One consoles.

As for the good news, Nintendo also announced — in a rather dull fashion I might add — that it will release its next console codenamed the NX in March 2017. And one of the first titles for the system will be a new Legend of Zelda title. Unfortunately, that means the game has been delayed another year. It was originally slated to be released for the Wii U, but Nintendo obviously has more work to do to get it ready for the Wii U and NX. That said, we should still get a look at it during E3 2016 in June.

On top of that Nintendo will release two new Pokemon games, Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon, which basically print money for the company at this point.

Nintendo also said it is readying more smartphone games following the success of its Miitomo title, which has been downloaded by more than million people and, according to The Wall Street Journal, is pulling in $280,000 per week via in-app purchases.

Additional smartphone apps include variations of the popular Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem franchises. If those games perform well enough alongside the new Pokemon titles and the NX console, Nintendo says it could see net profits rise to ¥35 billion ($315 million) in FY17. But in order for it to really succeed, the company needs to bring in more third-party game titles, which is something it's struggled with for quite some time.

Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.