Mario Kart 8 Doesn’t Help Nintendo Better Results

Nintendo has sold 2.82 million copies of Mario Kart 8 and Wii U sales are up 219 percent from last year, but those numbers weren’t enough to prevent a loss for the Japanese game company.

Nintendo has sold 510,000 Wii Us in the past three months, a 219 percent increase from last year and also an increase from the 310,000 Wii U consoles sold in the first quarter of 2013. The growth is partly explained by the release of Mario Kart 8: Nintendo has sold that title 2.82 million times since its release in late May. This is evident from the company’s quarterly figures. That means 80 percent of Mario Kart 8 buyers already own a Wii U.

Nintendo also sold 820,000 copies of its 3DS handheld. The group’s turnover fell by 8.4 percent in one year to 74.7 billion yen, or 545 million euros. The loss of the Japanese company amounted to 9.92 billion yen, or 72 million euros. Nintendo still expects to sell 3.6 million Wii Us in its current fiscal year, which ends at the end of March 2015. Super Smash Bros and the Skylanders-esque Amiibo figures should take care of that, among others.