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Tag: q1 2013

  • Nintendo Sold 160,000 Wii U Units Last Quarter

    At the end of its fiscal year in March, Nintendo announced to the world that it had sold 3.45 million Wii U units since its launch last November. Most of those units were sold during the holiday season, however, as Nintendo had only sold 200,000 units in the first three months of this year. In the three months since April, it’s gotten even worse.

    In its first quarter earnings report, Nintendo says that it’s only sold 160,000 Wii U units worldwide between April and June. During the same period, it only sold 1.03 million Wii U software units. It’s painfully obvious that sales are slowing down for Nintendo’s new console, and things are looking grim.

    So, what does Nintendo blame this poor performance on? Just like everybody else, the company cites “the release of few key first-party titles this quarter.” If you look at the last quarter, Nintendo only released three first party titles – LEGO City Undercover, New Super Luigi U and Game & Wario. Out of all of those, only one (New Super Luigi U) has any mainstream appeal. Unfortunately for Nintendo, prematurely announcing the physical release of what was to be a digital download may have hurt its current sales as Wii U owners wait for that release instead of buying the title on the eShop.

    It looks like Nintendo’s in a bad spot. The company does have a strategy to spur Wii U sales though. It plans to finally release some games for the console:

    For the ‘Wii U’ system, we will attempt to concentrate on proactively releasing key first-party titles from the second half of this year through next year to regain momentum for the platform. Starting with ‘Pikmin 3,’ which was released in Japan and Europe in July and will be released in the United States in August, we plan on releasing key titles such as ‘The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD,’ ‘Wii Party U,’ ‘Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze,’ ‘Super Mario 3D World,’ and ‘Wii Fit U.’

    Moreover, Nintendo strives to improve the sales by communicating the compelling nature of our hardware and software to as many people as possible through our new network service called ‘Miiverse,’ which offers an environment where people can empathize with others and share their gaming experiences. We also strive to improve hardware profitability by reducing its costs.

    The most interesting bit about the above statement is how Nintendo plans to work Miiverse into its strategy. Wii U owners can now access Miiverse on the Web, but they must have a Wii U to make an account. It plans on releasing Miiverse for the 3DS later this year, but it should also work on releasing dedicated apps for mobile devices as well. Allowing people to interact with the Wii U community might just convince them to buy one.

    Even if it’s strategy proves successful, Nintendo will still have to contend with the impending launch of the Xbox One and PS4. Current reports show both Microsoft and Sony increasing component orders and stores selling out of initial allotments. All of the signs points to consumers jumping onto the next-gen bandwagon in a big way. Nintendo will have to somehow convince these consumers that the Wii U is at least a worthy complementary console with experiences that you can’t find anywhere else.

    [h/t: Kotaku]

  • Pandora Q1 2013 Results Show How Mobile Platforms Make the Monies

    Pandora Q1 2013 Results Show How Mobile Platforms Make the Monies

    Pandora’s financial results for the first quarter of the 2013 fiscal year are out and all signs point to ‘yes’ for the internet radio service. The company’s total revenue of $80.8 million is up 58% from last year with ad revenue making up $70.6 million, a 62% increase over the same time period. Pandora raked in the other $10.2 million from subscriptions and other sources.

    Pandora also achieved a record 51.9 million active users, a 53% boost from this time last year when it boasted 34.0 million. The company recently celebrated its crossing of 150 registered users, 70% of whom are steadily enjoying Pandora through some kind of mobile device. Unsurprisingly, the future of Pandora’s continued success is targeted toward its mobile platform although its looking to monetize its other platforms, too (really, why wouldn’t they?), and with the 3.09 billion hours listeners spent streaming Pandora in the past year, that’s a rich opportunity for advertisers.

    And if those listening hours are happening on mobile devices, that’s likely where advertisers will pursue them. “Advertisers want to be everywhere their consumers are,” said Joe Kennedy, Chairman and CEO of Pandora, in a statement. “They are moving quickly to speak with their target customers across the Pandora platform, with the majority of the top 50 digital advertisers in the U.S. already having bought multiplatform advertising on Pandora.”

    With much of Pandora’s success flowing in from its ability to monetize the mobile experience of users, some who keep a studied eye on the industry are speculating on how this business model could be advantageous to Facebook. The social networking colossus has acknowledged problems with making money off its mobile platform, which could be problematic for the company given the majority of users are accessing Facebook via mobile devices these days.

    The ability for Pandora to parlay its mobile platform into a strong source of financial revenue doesn’t necessarily mean that Facebook’s going to be able to ape the internet radio service’s model, namely because there’s a huge design difference between the two sites. As Rocco Pendola of The Street points out, people are going to Pandora to listen, not to watch or read. The lack of visual content leaves a nice, neat canvas for displaying ads.

    Contrast that design with Facebook, which is a service built on providing visual content. When you’ve got an already-crowded news feed crammed with social readers, photos, status updates, and whatever else people are posting to Facebook, there’s relatively little room to squeeze in an ad when you’re viewing the site on the four-inch screen of a smartphone.

    The design of Facebook is simply at an inherent disadvantage when it comes to mobile advertising. Even with the consideration of sponsored stories that are inserted into users’ news feeds, there’s not really a feasible way to display ads in Facebook’s current mobile platform. Short of creating news feeds that are narrated by some weird voice recording – lord, can you imagine how awful that would be? – that would open up some space for advertising, there’s not much else Facebook is going to be able to do.

    However, if Facebook does manage to re-invent its mobile wheel and find a way to make its mobile platform profitable, expect much of the company’s inspiration to be gleaned from what Pandora has managed to achieve with its marketing strategy.