“Nintendo Co Ltd said it would launch a successor to its aging Wii game console in 2012,” Isabel Reynolds reports for Reuters. “Nintendo said on Monday that it expects profits to remain almost flat in the current financial year, despite the launch of its much-touted 3D-capable handheld games device, whose sales in Japan have been overshadowed by the devastating March 11 earthquake.”
“The maker of the DS handheld game player, which is also facing competition from smartphone and tablet makers including Apple Inc , said on Monday it will demonstrate the Wii’s replacement in Los Angeles on June 7 at the E3 game show,” Reynolds reports. “Nintendo declined to provide further details on the Wii successor. ‘As for the details of exactly what it will be, we have decided that it is best to let people experience it for themselves at E3,’ Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata, told a news conference. ‘So I won’t talk about specific details today, but it will offer a new way of playing games within the home,’ said Iwata, a former game designer.”
“In the business year just ended, Wii console sales fell to 15.1 million units from 20.1 million a year earlier. It expects sales to fall by a further 2 million units this business year,” Reynolds reports. “Sales of its non-3D handheld DS shrank by almost 10 million units to 17.5 million, and the company expects that to slide to 11 million this year.”
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