Nintendo may not be as deliriously successful now as it was during the Wii / DS years, but it's making the most of the situation in order to keep the ship running smoothly. That's my takeaway from Nintendo's third quarter of fiscal year 2015 earnings report, which reveals that from October to December, the company's net income was 45.215 billion yen (just over $384 million).
During this past quarter, the Wii U moved another 1.91 million units, bring total Wii U sales to 9.20 million. The software side fared quite a bit better, thanks to a handful of must-have games such as Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U — 11.19 million games moved in the last three months, the Wii U's best software sales performance following the hardware's launch months. So far, the console has sold 52.87 million games.
In contrast, hardware and software sales for 3DS have slowed down considerably. Just 4.99 million handhelds sold this past quarter, down from 7.76 million last year, but at least it's enough to push the machine to 50.41 million units. Software sales were hurt less — 29.74 million copies sold this year versus 29.87 million last year, bringing the grand total to 215.96 million.
But what about game shipments? Pokemon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire have hit 9.35 million by the end of December, while Mario Kart 8's lifetime numbers are an impressive 4.77 million. But the big winner is the Smash series — the 3DS version has moved 6.19 million, while the Wii U version has moved 3.39 million. Combined, the latest Smash is on track to be the best-selling in the series, easily trouncing Brawl's 12.14 million. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Smash on 3DS alone breaks that number!
You can check out more financial nuggets in the full report here.
