Nintendo sold 600,000 Wii Us in Q2
Console is "gathering momentum" but Nintendo looks ahead to major software launches
Sales of Nintendo hardware have been "gathering momentum" in the first half of the fiscal year, with the Wii U shifting 600,000 units in the second quarter.
During the six-month period ended September 30, 2014, Nintendo earned ¥171.4 billion ($1.6 billion) in revenue, up 12.8 per cent year-on-year. Net profit was ¥14.2 billion ($131.5 million), a clear improvement over the ¥0.6 billion it earned at the same point in the last fiscal year.
In terms of hardware, Nintendo reported 1.12 million Wii Us sold, up from 510,000 quarter-over-quarter. The only major new release in the second quarter was Hyrule Warriors - launched at the very end of the accounting period - though Nintendo's earnings release put more emphasis on the "steady sales" of Mario Kart 8.
Overall, the company sold around 5 million units of Wii U software in the second quarter, up from 4.4 million units in the first. Nintendo expects this to improve in the second half of the fiscal year, with the launches of Super Smash Bros. Wii U and its Amiibo toy line.
The Nintendo 3DS sold 1.27 million units in the second quarter, a marked improvement on the 820,000 units it sold in the first. 3DS software showed a similar rate of improvement with 14.73 million units sold, bringing the total for the first-half of the fiscal year to 23.3 million.
Super Smash Bros. 3DS and Tomodachi Life were Nintendo's key performers for the platform, selling 3.2 million and 1.27 million units in this fiscal year respectively. Again, Nintendo expects improved performance when Pokemon Omega Sapphire and Ruby launch next month.
Nintendo expects to earn ¥590 billion ($5.5 billion) in revenue and ¥169 billion ($1.6 billion) in profit by the end of the fiscal year.