Nintendo sells fewer 3DS units than expected, though it's still some 10x the number of Vitas sold

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22 million ain't to be sniffed at

Nintendo hasn't sold quite as many 3DS units as it expected over the past financial year, contributing to a cut in forecast profits being announced to investors. Losses are still being made (after last year's first ever recorded loss for the company), but at least the losses are declining.

For the six months ending on September 30, 2012, Nintendo recorded global sales of 201 billion yen (£1.58bn/$2.52bn), down 6.8 per cent on the same period for the year previous. But the loss of 28 billion yen (£220m/$350.7m) was down from the 70 billion yen ($877m/£551m) lost during the same period the year before, so at least progress is being made.

Nintendo's got a pretty secure hold on the handheld console market, especially considering worldwide DS sales currently stand at 152 million. But with all the healthy sales not translating into company-wide profit, a lot is riding on Wii U. Nintendo is aiming to sell 5.5 million of those by April. Is that going to happen? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Sources: Nintendo, Eurogamer, CVG

Justin Towell
Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.