Nintendo: Wii U Zelda HD, Super Mario 3D World sell "over 1m units"

Company shifts 2.41 million Wii U consoles during 9 months, as profits fall 30 percent.

Nintendo sold over 1 million units of its big Wii U releases The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, Wii U Party and Super Mario 3D World over the Christmas period.

"While these titles each sold over one million units, the Wii U business as a whole was not able to recover fully, and the global sales of the Wii U hardware and software reached only 2.41 million and 15.96 million units respectively," said the company.

"The Wii U hardware still has a negative impact on Nintendo’s profits owing mainly to its markdown in the United States and Europe, and sales of software, which has high profit margins, did not grow sufficiently."

To date the Wii U has sold 5.86 million units since release and 29.37 million games. The 3DS handheld has sold 42.74 million units and 152.29 million games.

For the nine months to December 31st, the company recorded net sales of 499 billion yen ($4.8bn), down 8 percent compared to the same period last year. Profits we also down 30 per cent to 10.1 billion yen ($89m).

Earlier this month Nintendo warned it expected a $336 million loss. Sales of the Wii U console were expected to be 2.9 million units for the full financial year, rather than the original prediction of 9 million units.

Shares in the company took a beating amidst calls for the company to radically rethink its strategy - from porting franchises to smartphones and working with other hardware manufacturers to the stepping down of CEO and president Satoru Iwata.