3DS sales are likely to come in 16 percent under Nintendo's annual target of 16 million units, based on the average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter thinks annual 3DS sales could be as low as ten million units, although Tokyo-based Macquarie analyst David Gibson expects Nintendo to sell 14.5 million units this fiscal year.
"It's difficult to achieve 16 million, especially considering" the sales figure in the US, said Gibson.
Koichi Ogawa, a portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments in Tokyo, said "Nintendo should consider embracing social networks, even though it's going to be a latecomer. Even with the price cut, it's hard to lure consumers as various platforms including the iPhone and iPad are available now. Those people won't use 3DS to play cards or mah- jongg."
Nintendo's stock fell five percent following this morning's pre-TGS conference as the company failed to be win over investors with new product announcements, including Monster Hunter 4 for 3DS and launch details for the portable's controversial second circle pad peripheral.
Comments
3 comments so far...
Serebii on 13 Sep '11 said:
Problem is that investors and analysts don't know what they want.
They want Nintendo to not follow trends, and when they don't, they complain Nintendo should.
I saw comments from one analyst earlier saying that Nintendo should quit the handheld market and focus on Wii style family games and that's the only way they can "survive" and some saying these games are "irrelevant" when in the face of iPhone games
unmannedrobot on 14 Sep '11 said:
Ah well, those analyst don't worry me, as heck by x-mas theres probly be a shortage! My son has one, my daughter wants one and I'll be getting one now that the red one is out now!
MD1500 on 14 Sep '11 said:
So many people seem to want Nintendo to fail. I guess it's tall poppy syndrome.
Anyway, selling 13 Million consoles in a recession, despite a relentless media attacking them for every move is not too shabby.