Nintendo Posts Quarterly Loss Despite the Success of Mario Kart

Nintendo posted a quarterly loss of 97.2 million dollars despite the success of Mario Kart 8. As I have iterated before, this is further proof that a single title cannot save a console, especially in today’s environment. Despite being happy with the success of Mario Kart 8, Nintendo noted that more copies of the game were sold to consumers who already owned a Wii U, and that they sold less new Wii U’s than expected. However, Nintendo still hopes to reach their yearly goal of 3.6 million Wii U’s.

Although they posted a loss, I cannot help but think that it was probably money well spent. Despite the belief of many fans and individuals in the media, Nintendo was not naive enough to think Mario Kart would solve all their woes. Huge marketing dollars have been spent on promoting titles coming to the Wii U this year, especially Super Smash Bros. Take, for example, the huge Super Smash Bros tournaments they threw at E3 and Comic-Con. Nintendo also spent considerable dollars on creating a lot of hype during the week of E3. Marketing their console to the community has been their top priority; lets not forget all the games they gave away for free with their Mario Kart 8 promotion. To date, the game has sold 2.8 million units; this means there is almost  50% attach rate for current Wii U owners.

It’s not game over for Nintendo. In fact, it is probably far from it. If the hype within the video game community is anything to go by, it seems that people are more likely to purchase a Wii U now than ever before. Many have even stated they are more excited for Nintendo through the rest of 2014 and into 2015 than either Sony or Microsoft. Although these are probably just gut reactions following a strong showing by Nintendo at E3, there still seems to be considerable interest in Nintendo’s console, and this can only mean good things for the company.