Nintendo's earnings: Wii U sales had a 'negative impact on profits'

Poor sales of Nintendo's Wii U console have had "a negative impact" on the company's profits and have led to the company revising its earnings forecast, according to Nintendo's consolidated financial highlights for the nine months ending December 2012.

Nintendo cited the Wii U's sales as a contributing factor to the company's 5.8 billion yen operating loss. In the period from the console's release to the end of December 2012, the Wii U sold 830,000 units in Japan, 1.32 million in The Americas and 900,000 units "elsewhere". A total of 3.06 million units were sold globally. Software sales came to a total of 11.69 million. The console is forecast to sell a total of 4 million units by the end of the financial year ending March 2013, down from Nintendo's forecast in October 2012 of 5.5 million units. In comparison, the Nintendo Wii sold 3.19 million units globally in its first six weeks and had a forecast of selling 6 million units by the fiscal year that ended March 2007.

Due to the "negative impact" of Wii U sales, Nintendo revised its full-year financial forecast, lowering the annual net sales figure from 810 billion yen to 670 billion yen, a decrease of 17.3 percent. However it has more than doubled its net income from 6 billion yen to 14 billion yen and its net income per share forecast has jumped from 46.9 million yen per share to 109.5 million yen per share.

Sales for the 3DS remained strong in the nine month period ending December 2012, with Nintendo selling a total of 12.7 million units, up from the previous year's 11.4 million units. Sales for the DS and Wii fell, with the DS selling 2.1 million units compared to the previous year's 4.6 million, and the Wii selling 3.5 million units compared to the previous year's 8.6 million.

Earlier this month Nintendo president Satoru Iwata said that sales for the Wii U were "not bad."

An infographic showing the lifetime sales of all Nintendo consoles can be viewed here.