After Nintendo sales fell 30 percent, high ranking officials announced pay cuts would begin for the upcoming five months in February to make up for the poor performance, the Associated Press reported.
In the first nine months of the fiscal year, sales had already fallen 30 percent with Wii U home consoles and 3D devices according to a financial report released Wednesday, the AP reported.
Profits reported from April to December were down from 14.55 billion yen a year to 10.2 billion, but a breakdown of the numbers was not provided in the report, according to the AP.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata will split his pay rate in half; Nintendo games creator Shigeru Miyamoto and another representative director will have a 30 percent pay cut, and seven more board members will lose 20 percent of their pay for the next five months, the AP reported.
The annual sales forecast for Wii U was 9 million, but only 2.8 million consoles sold from April to December, the AP reported. Last year during the same period 3 million units were sold.
The lag in sales has been attributed to user popularity with smartphones and tablets which have been steadily drawing gamers away from game consoles, but Nintendo is not expected to begin incorporating online gaming any time soon, according to the AP.
"It would be a positive surprise if Nintendo comes out with an online game strategy for smartphones, although the market doesn't expect that move," Tomoaki Kawasaki, senior analyst at IwaiCosmo Securities Co., told the AP.
A loss of 25 billion yen is forecasted for the upcoming fiscal year until March 2014, but initial forecasts predicted a profit of 55 billion yen, according to the AP. The gaming company's profits reached 7 billion yen last year alone.
Forecast for the hand-held 3DS gaming device shrunk from 13.5 million units from 18 million units, the AP reported.
"In the fourth quarter, we expect sales to decrease significantly due to seasonal factors as the year-end sales season concludes," Nintendo said in a statement, according to the AP.
