Nintendo net sales fell 33% to 136,812 million yen during the first six month of fiscal year 2016, showing that the Wii U home console is almost dead and profits from the very successful Pokémon Go did not directly impact the balance sheet.
Poor sales drive the company back to an operating loss of 5,947 million yen, paired with an ordinary loss of 30,883 million yen. Nintendo still managed to make a huge profit of 38,299 million yen, however, which is 234.0% higher than last year, by selling the US baseball team Seattle Mariners. Income from mobile games and IP licencing rises from 2,725 to 3,408 million yen year-on-year.
Expectations for the current semester are not much better either, and the Nintendo forecast has been predicted lower. Net sales at March 31, 2017 is projected to go down to 470,000 million yen from 500,000 million yen, as ordinary and operating income follow the same path. But profits rise from 35,000 million yen to 50,000 million yen thanks to Seattle Mariners income and higher-than-expected exchange rate.
Nintendo will skip the home console market next holiday, however, as Wii U is almost out of the market. The company expects to move only 240.000 units in this semester to achieve a record low of 800,000 in the whole fiscal year, as there are no hit titles right now. The company's income is all about Nintendo 3DS and Pokémon Sun/Moon, and portable sales grew 19% year-on-year during the first six months thanks to Pokémon Go encouraging people to try out other Pokémon games.
Finally, Tatsumi Kimishima said during a press conference that Nintendo Switch will sell 2 million units in March 2017. Nintendo Entertainment System: NES Classic Edition and mobile games Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing are also coming during this fiscal year too.
You can check Nintendo's consolidated financial highlights here. Will the Switch signal a change of fortune for Nintendo?