Nintendo Forecasts Slight Downturn in 3DS Sales

Nintendo has cut its profit and sales forecast for its current financial year which ends in March.

In a note to investors, Nintendo said it expects to sell 13 percent less Nintendo 3DS units than previously suggested. While it initially forecasted sales for the handheld as 7.6 million units for the year, this has been revised to 6.6 million units.

Wii U sales, meanwhile, are expected to stay on track. Nintendo believes it will have shifted 3 million units by the end of the financial year.

As a result of the expected downturn, net sales for the company have been revised down by 12 percent, from $5.4 billion to $4 billion. Operating income, meanwhile, has been reduced far steeper, at 34 percent, from $442 million to $291 million.

Earlier in February, Nintendo reported fairly upbeat financial results. During the nine-month period ending in December, Nintendo sold 3.1 million Wii U systems, which brought lifetime global sales of the console to around 12 million units.

Wii U games sales, meanwhile, reached 79 million units in total. At the time, the lifetime unit sales for Nintendo 3DS was put at 57 million, with some 264 million games sold.

Nintendo is expected to reveal its next home console this year. It officially announced the platform, codenamed the NX, in March 2015, alongside the news that the company was bringing its franchises to smartphones and tablets through a partnership with mobile gaming giant DeNA.

Reports have claimed Nintendo may have started pilot assembly of the NX in October 2015, with mass production scheduled to kick off in May or June 2016. The NX, according to the report, would then be released commercially "around July." None of this has been confirmed as of yet.