Nintendo Profitable For The First Time In Three Years, Beats Analyst Expectations

Nintendo has revealed Q4 and EOY financial results for the financial year ending March 31, 2015.

Nintendo beat expectations by a small margin. They made ¥ 549.780 billion for the financial year, over analyst projections of ¥ 541.1 billion. This marks the first year since 2011 that Nintendo is profitable again.

This is the breakdown of hardware/software sales:

·         3DS sales are down 28 %, from 12.24 million units sold in the previous year, to 8.73 million this year.

·         Wii U sales are up 24 %, from 2.72 million in the previous year to 3.38 million this year.

·         3DS hardware lifetime sales are 52.06 million units, and software, 225.66 million units. 3DS has a hardware/software tie ratio of 4.33.

·         Wii U hardware lifetime sales are 9.54 million units, and software, 56.68 million units. Wii U has a hardware/software tie ratio of 5.94.

Nintendo broke down LTD sales for their biggest blockbuster titles for the year as follows:

·         Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: 9.35 million

·         Super Smash Bros for 3DS: 6.19 million

·         Super Smash Bros for Wii U: 3.39 million

·         Mario Kart 8: 4.77 million

In their analysis, Nintendo noted that 3DS hardware sales did not grow as anticipated, although 3DS XL units got off to a good start. Aside from Pokemon and Smash, they cite evergreen sales for Tomodachi Life, Mario Kart 7, and remake The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D. Smash and Mario Kart 8 were credited as good sellers for the Wii U.

Nintendo expects good sales for 3DS games Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, Rhythm Heaven, Fire Emblem If, and several 3^rd party games. For Wii U, they citeYoshi’s Wooly World, Splatoon, and Mario Maker, as well as future DLC for Mario Kart 8 andSuper Smash Bros . They also discuss launching new types of amiibo, including the knit Yarn Yoshi amiibo, and card amiibo for Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer.

Amiibo sales were not mentioned in this report, but we may get more details in tomorrow’s investor’s meeting. Nintendo did state that it was difficult to account for this product category as they launched it in the middle of this financial year. Similarly, we may hear about DeNA, QOL, and Nintendo's other plans and initiatives in this meeting.

It’s hard to tell from this report what the future holds for Nintendo, but clearly, they did not need to raise hardware sales that much to post profits.