While Nintendo plans to use smartphones to promote its games, it has no intentions of releasing its games onto mobile platforms, senior research analyst David Gibson reported Nintendo as saying during its results meeting.
The meeting follows the company's financial results for the six months ending September 2013, where the company posted a ¥23.2 billion ($187 million) operating loss.
During the meeting, the company said Nintendo 3DS marketshare has increased in Japan, Europe and the U.S. reporting that the 3DS in the States has already surpassed last year's total, According to Gibson, Nintendo says more than 5 million units sold in U.S. this year with strong holiday sales expected.
According to Gibson, Nintendo argued that the strong performance of the 3DS is in step with the smartphone expansion. Nintendo said the awareness level of the Nintendo 2DS — which launched in North America, Europe and Australia on Oct. 12. — is still too low but its surveys indicate that "buyers were new users."
While the Wii U's performance still has a negative impact on the company's profits, according to its consolidated financial highlights for the period, Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata said that he is not pessimistic about the future of the company. In the meeting, he said he is focused on creating long term value for the company and remains committed to achieving ¥100 bilion OP.
According to Gibson, he recalled former president Hiroshi Yamauchi's advice of "don't copy other entertainment companies" and he reiterated his previous sentiment that Nintendo will not cut staff to cut costs. In July, Iwata said such strategies only resolve short-term difficulties, but are counter-productive in the long-term.
The company also acknowledged that competition is increasing with next month's launches of Sony's and Microsoft's next-generation consoles but says the new hardware is not targeted at family audience this year. This holiday season, Nintendo will target the family market and focus on advanced players next year. Going forward, the company will target growth in Japan, U.S., Europe and "perhaps Australia."
In the six month period, the Wii U hardware sold 460,000 units worldwide. It was a relative sales improvement, as the Wii U sold 160,000 units during its first quarter of the six month period and doubled its sales in the second quarter.
For the six month period, Nintendo sold 2.49 million units of Animal Crossing: New Leaf, 1.91 million copies of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, 1.37 million units of Mario & Luigi: Dream Team and 1.19 million units of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D.