Improved Wii U sales help Nintendo turn profit, but pale in comparison to the PS4

Nintendo announced that it made a ¥41 billion ($350 million) profit for the fiscal year ending March 31, marking the first time the company has turned an annual profit in four years.

Nintendo specifically noted "increased" Wii U hardware and software sales, with key contributions from Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, which Nintendo labeled as "strong hit titles." In total, 3.38 million Wii U sales were sold during the latest fiscal year, bringing the life-to-date total to 9.54 million systems sold worldwide.

While I suppose that's impressive relative to how the Wii U performed early on, it still pales in comparison to the current-market leader, the PlayStation 4. By comparison, Sony's new PS4 console has shipped 22.3 million units worldwide. We don't know Microsoft's Xbox One sales, but it's expected to be above 10 million units.

On the handheld front, the Nintendo 3DS family, which includes the Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS/New Nintendo 3DS XL, and the 2DS,  reached 8.73 million units. While the New Nintendo 3Ds and New Nintendo 3DS XL "got off to a good start and continued to sell well," the sales of the Nintendo 3DS prior to the launch of the new versions "did not grow as anticipated." As a result, sales of the Nintendo 3DS hardware as a whole were down compared to the previous fiscal year.

On the software front, Pokémon Omega Ruby/Pokémon Alpha Sapphire and Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS enjoyed "robust" sales, alongside popular first-party titles that showed "steady sales." However, overall sales of Nintendo 3DS software were down compared to the previous fiscal year "due to lower sales of hardware that would have drive software sales."

Looking ahead, Nintendo plans to release new games to expand its install base, but there's not much on the schedule. I'd say the biggest games on the schedule are Star Fox and Xenoblade Chronicles X, both of which are dated for "2015." The Legend of Zelda for Wii U — arguably the biggest game on the list — still does not have a release window. And, of course, Nintendo is starting its new mobile game initiative which the company hopes to deliver 5 games by the end of March 2017.

[Nintendo 1, 2, 3]