Amid growing competition from tech companies selling smartphones and tablets offering cheaper games, Nintendo Co. has shifted its focus from price cuts to profitability, in efforts to attract more buyers and generate sales.
This push comes almost three months after the Japanese game maker decided to back down, following a similar prediction last year. This year, Nintendo insists that company targets are now within reach.
“This time our targets are not overstretched,” President Satoru Iwata of Nintendo said Wednesday at a news conference held in Osaka, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal. “But for the current fiscal year, it’s critical to ensure that we generate profit,” Mr. Iwata added.
For this year until March 2015, Nintendo predicts to earn an operating profit of ¥40 billion ($393 million). The company revealed a total loss of ¥46.43 billion for 2013 with total sales lower than those of 2012.
When competing companies such as Sony and Microsoft released their own consoles in November, more than seven units were sold.
Though Nintendo seems steadfast in its forecast, analysts and investors believe otherwise. The company already reduced its profit targets many times in the past; this new announcement made them skeptical.
Nintendo aims to sell 3.6 million Wii U consoles and 20 million Wii U software units. The company has high expectations on future releases such as “Mario Kart 8” and “Super Smash Bros” which should increase customer demand. For its 3D-based hand-held game devices, Nintendo expects to achieve a total sales record of 12 million units.
Mr. Iwata reiterated that the company will never consider placing the iconic Mario game franchise on smartphones and tables. However, he added that Nintendo is finding various ways of promoting its games on smart devices.
“We hope to actively utilize smart devices, but I don’t think it’s true that there is no future for game consoles because of smartphones,” he added.
