Nintendo reports first ever annual loss, 3DS sells 17m LTD

Nintendo has reports its first ever annual loss at a net loss of ¥43.2 billion (£328.7 million/$531.1 million), a lower than expected figure compared to what was previously predicted thanks to strong 3DS sales. Sales were at ¥647 billion (£4.92 billion/$7.97 billion).

The company also recorded a 36.2% drop on sales compared to FY2011.

Total sales of Nintendo 3DS during FY2012 were 13.53 million, with software at 36 million. LTD, 3DS sales are now at 17.13 million with software at 45.4 million units. Sales of the system had exceeded 5 million units LTD in Japan.

The vanilla DS line - DS, DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL - sold 5.1 million hardware units and 60.82 million software units in the FY. In its lifespan, the line has sold 151.52 million hardware units combined and 900.31 million units in software.

For Wii, Nintendo reported hardware sales of 9.84 million units in the FY with software at 102.37 million. Lifetime to date, Wii's now sold 95.85 million units and 818.46 million software units.

For FY2013, Nintendo has predicted it will stop selling 3DS "below cost" by the middle of the fiscal year - around September - and expects to make a profit on each unit sold by then. It follows a massive price-cut for the system last August that was put in place to boost flagging sales of the handheld.

Its predicted hardware sales of 18.5 million and 73 million software for 3DS in the next 12 months. Nintendo has also predicted net sales of ¥820 billion and an operating income of ¥35 billion for the year ending March 31, 2013.

Nintendo has big releases planned for the year ahead to help strengthen 3DS sales, including New Super Mario Bros 2 for 3DS in August, Animal Crossing for 3DS this fall, Brain Age 3DS this summer in Japan. It also plans to continue pushing older titles, including Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land.

All of this is before the planned release of Wii U later this year.

Get the full report here.