Nintendo just had its best year in a long time, but can it keep it up?

By Jake Muncy and Nick Pino

Nintendo, home of Mario, released its 2014 financial report last week, alongside sales figures and updated financial forecasts for the fiscal year.

The good news – and, certainly, what Nintendo would like us to focus on – is that 2014 was the company’s first profitable year since 2012. The bad news is roughly everything else: Sales are still lagging in just about every category, and even with some end-of-year rallying for the Wii U, it still is failing miserably to live up to its predecessor in terms of units sold.

So, wait, how is it making a profit again? It’s a bit confusing and, to add to the fun, Nintendo’s future is even more muddled. Let’s get to it.

By the Numbers

In 2014, Nintendo sold ?.93 million Wii U units, over half of which occurred in the latter half of the year. The 3DS, meanwhile, did a good deal better, selling just over seven million units worldwide between April and December. Both of those numbers, however, are lower than what Nintendo projected at the start of the fiscal year, and certainly aren’t the kind of growing numbers that inspire confidence.

The Wii …read more

Source: techradar.com – Gaming