Wii U lifetime sales pass 10 million, Splatoon sells 1.62m

Nintendo has posted an encouraging profit (8.3bn yen / £43m) for the months April, May and June. Last year it was in the red (-9.9bn yen / -£51m).

The good news is 3DS sales (1m for the quarter), Splatoon sales and amiibo sales. Splatoon has sold 1.62m units since its release at the end of May, helping the Wii U edge over the 10m sales milestone (10.01m specifically) after two-and-a-half years on sale. Considering Splatoon is Wii U exclusive, and it was on sale for two full months, that's a convincing result for the new IP. Then again, Mario Kart 8 is owned by 5.11 million people - more than half of the Wii U audience.

Amiibo sales weren't specified but referred to as "favourable" and, Nintendo promised, "we will continue to expand the lineup". And with an expanded lineup comes potential for plenty more defective models, which have become collector's items and sell for a fortune. Someone has dedicated a Tumblr page to them. "At the same time," the report added, "we aim to stimulate demand for amiibo from owners of the original Nintendo 3DS hardware systems by releasing the Nintendo 3DS NFC Reader/Writer accessory (for Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL and Nintendo 2DS), which will be launched simultaneously with Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer [out in Europe 2nd October 2015]."

Looking ahead, Nintendo has Wii U games Star Fox Zero, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival to make the money this Christmas time. 3DS Zelda game Tri Force Heroes will be out this year too.

The Legend of Zelda Wii U game, which was delayed to 2016 - and may well be a game for Nintendo's new NX console, either exclusively or on Wii U as well - had its date listed simply as TBD. The NX console, incidentally, was not mentioned.

Nintendo did mention its landmark decision to pursue mobile gaming. "We expect to secure a new source of revenue from a gaming application for smart devices, which will be released by the end of this calendar year," it said.

Nintendo, and the wider gaming world, suffered a tremendous blow earlier this month with the passing of company president Satoru Iwata. No announcement has been made in regard to appointing a new president. Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto remain as senior managing directors.

Hardware sales

• Wii lifetime: 101,560,000
• Wii U lifetime: 10,010,000
• 3DS lifetime: 53,070,000

Upcoming Wii U games:

• Mario Maker: 11th September
• Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water: autumn
• Xenoblade Chronicles X: December
• Star Fox Zero: Q4
• Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash: Q4
• Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival: Q4

Upcoming 3DS games:

• The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes: Q4
• Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon: early 2016
• Hyrule Warriors Legends: Q1 2016
• Fire Emblem Fates: 2016
• Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam Bros.: spring 2016