Nintendo isn’t in good shape. The 3DS might be selling a great deal of hardware and games, but the dual-screened Wii U has failed to capture the imagination of consumers. Projections continue to fall for the Mario maker, but Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter just isn’t seeing the right kind of urgency coming out of the company.
“Nintendo cut their forecast sharply today. Missed their profit forecast by over $1 billion, cut Wii U units to 2.8 million from 9 million,” he Tweeted after Nintendo’s financials went public. “The Wii U has clearly not resonated with consumers. 3DS selling ‘fine,’ but down around 50 percent from average DS levels last decade.”
That doesn’t sound too promising, but Pachter has a solution for the Japanese company.
“Nintendo software is still great, will continue to be. However, if software remains proprietary, sales are limited when they sell fewer HW units,” he explained. “The first step to recovery is to acknowledge the problem. I have not seen anything from Mr. Iwata that acknowledges that there is a problem.”
Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata has claimed that he’s considering a new business strategy for Nintendo, but it doesn’t sound like it’ll involve iOS versions of Mario.
