President of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, has today refuted claims that recent financial losses at the company had resulted in calls for his resignation.
Nintendo suffered significant losses in its overall game and hardware sales last year. Early this morning, Nintendo reported that it is revising its annual forecast. The company now expects a net loss of £205 millon at the end of its official fiscal year in March 2014. That’s contrary to its previous financial forecast, which wrongly predicted Nintendo would bring in a net profit of around £587 million.
The loss has been mainly attributed to the poor sales of Nintendo's latest home console, the Wii U, which has consistently failed to attract a high level of consumers since it was first released in November 2012. Nintendo shares have also fallen slightly in the wake of this news.
Despite the dismal fiscal forecast, Sotaru Iwata has flatly denied that there is any truth in a potential 'management shake-up' or in the fact that he himself had been forced to resign over the issue. Speaking to reporters recently, Iwata said: "There will be no major management shake-up in the short term," [sourced from: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2014-01-17-satoru-iwata-downplays-resignation-talk]
Sotaru Iwata has also apologized to Nintendo Shareholders recently at a special conference held to discuss the financial crisis. He said: "The most important thing is to reinvigorate Nintendo's business as quickly as possible... I will not resign, but stay in office to carry that through." [sourced from: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-17-nintendo-slashes-wii-u-forecast-from-9m-to-2-8m.]
However, even if Iwata's job appears to be safe for now, Nintendo are still going to have to work especially hard if they are to recover from the disappointing losses. Whether they can indeed turn things around is by no means clear. All we know at the moment is that Nintendo's future is clearly hanging in the balance.
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