30 years of Nintendo: 268M consoles, 385M handhelds, 4.1 BILLION games sold
Though Nintendo’s Wii U may be struggling, with the latest financial quarter seeing the company sell just 160,000 of the next-gen machines, a look back at the company’s 30 years in the home videogame industry shows a mind-boggling number of games and consoles sold.
Since the launch of the original Famicom in console way back in 1983, Nintendo has sold a gigantic 268.97 million home consoles and 385.15 million handheld machines, according to the company’s latest annual report.
Add to that a staggering 4.102 BILLION game sales (split across 2.195 billion units for its console hardware and 1.907 billion units for its handhelds), and its clearly a gaming pedigree (and popularity) quite unlike any in the industry.
Those console figures come from combined sales of all SKUs of the company’s Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Wii and Wii U and the handhelds Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS devices, while software sales also include titles bundles with consoles and downloadable software.
Can Nintendo’s Wii U claw back the popularity the company once enjoyed? Following the posting of an operating loss of $366 million for the fiscal year ending March 31 2013, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has now issued a confident and assured-sounding statement about the company’s future prospects:
“Nintendo posted an operating loss for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2013,” said Iwata in the statement.
“However, we strive to regain ‘Nintendo-like’ profits for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014 by providing many people with fascinating games and services. We continue to make brand-new and unique proposals, and make efforts for the growth of the home entertainment industry with a mission that is to pleasantly surprise people and put smiles on the faces of everyone Nintendo touches.”
