Nintendo Needs a Hit in a Hurry

Super Mario is proving no match for Angry Birds. Nintendo executives have watched with alarm as consumers spend a few dollars to buy apps like Birds for their smartphones or tablets—instead of spending hundreds of dollars to purchase the company’s 3DS portable handhelds, Wii consoles, and games like Mario Kart 7. On Jan. 26, Nintendo unnerved investors by boosting its projected net loss for the fiscal year ending in March from $260 million to $838 million, making this its worst year in the three decades since it began making games.

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata says the gloom is temporary, despite two years of declining sales for the Kyoto-based company. The Wii U, expected to go on sale in time for the 2012 holidays, will dispel concerns that game-focused consoles are doomed, he says. The centerpiece of the new system is a 6.2-inch touchscreen controller, roughly the size of a tablet computer, that lets users wirelessly connect to the console and shift content between a big-screen television and the device’s smaller screen. A player can use the controller to switch camera angles in a game, change the lighting, and flick the picture from the TV back to the touchscreen, should someone else want to watch the tube. Along with a slew of new game titles for the 3DS, the Wii U should “sweep away some reports that game-dedicated devices are coming to an end,” Iwata said on a conference call with investors.