Strong Amiibo and Spaltoon Sales Pave the Way to Profit for Nintendo - http://clapway.com/2015/07/29/strong-amiibo-and-spaltoon-sales-pave-the-way-to-profit-for-nintendo-245/

Nintendo has been struggling since its latest console (Wii U) hit the market back in 2012, but on Wednesday the company had a surprising announcement, they reported a profit for the first-quarter.

Nintendo Reports a 20% Increase in Revenue

In its report, Nintendo stated that revenues for the three months ending June 30th, yielded net sales of $727 million and an operating profit of $9.3 million. This is the company’s strongest first quarter since 2012.

Last year’s earnings report indicated that Nintendo posted a loss of around $80 million. Many analysts were predicting another loss this quarter for Nintendo, so the earnings reports is a surprise for many.

Nintendo Can Thank Strong Sales From Amiibo, The New Nintendo 3DS, and Splatoon

Amiibos, interactive figurines featuring popular Nintendo characters, were released on November 21, 2014, and while there was an immense demand for them, it wasn’t clear just how well they were doing. In a press release from May, Nintendo revealed that the company had shipped more than 10 million Amiibos.

Profit isn’t just isolated to Amiibo sales, however. Since its release back on October 2014, the New Nintendo 3DS has shipped 3.27 units worldwide, and the company’s newest release, the squid-based shooter Splatoon, has also sold 1.62 million units since it launched at the end of May.

The Wii U Surpasses 10 Million Units Sold and Nintendo Talks About the Future

The Wii U launched on November 18 2012 and Nintendo has announced that the console has finally surpassed 10 million sales. By comparison, the Wii has sold over 100 million units since it launched, and was sitting at roughly 50 million sales going into its third year on the shelf. To say it’s been a rough ride for the successor to the Wii is an understatement.

During the earnings call, a Nintendo spokeswoman said that the company had “no implications” for future management moves. There are currently two representative directors that are acting as interim heads of the company since Satoru Iwata’s recent passing. The spokeswoman also said that the company had no intentions of diverging from the path already set by Iwata.

Nintendo is currently working on their next-gen console, code-named NX, while also teaming up with Japanese mobile developer DeNA in order to create mobile games for smartphones.

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Games, games, and more VR games:

 

Strong Amiibo and Spaltoon Sales Pave the Way to Profit for Nintendo

Leaked Patent Documents Reveal Details About Nintendo Sleep Tracker - http://clapway.com/2015/07/26/leaked-patent-documents-reveal-details-about-nintendo-sleep-tracker567/

Last year, Nintendo announced that it would be launching a new line of products aimed at improving quality of life, and on Friday. a new patent for a Nintendo sleep tracker was leaked online.

The Nintendo Sleep Tracker is the Company’s First Quality of Life Product

Nintendo’s late President and CEO Satoru Iwata spearheaded a “Quality of Life” campaign last year where the company announced that it would be producing a sleep monitor. This leak shows that the company is that much closer in achieving the goal of that campaign.

The Nintendo sleep tracker is meant to monitor people while they sleep, as the device sits next to the person’s bed while they sleep.

“Fatigue and sleep are themes that are rather hard to visualize in more objective ways,” said Iwata in an interview last year. “At Nintendo, we believe that if we could visualize them, there would be great potential for many people regardless of age, gender, language, or culture.”

The Leaked Patent Reveals How Exactly Nintendo’s Sleep Tracker Will Work

In one of the diagrams of the device, it shows a smartphone-like device sitting on a table while displaying relevant information. Nintendo’s sleep tracker appears to be composed of a smartphone-like device and a dock, though it’s not exactly clear whether the dock is the sleep tracker while the generic looking phone is meant to be the user’s phone, or if it’s one device.

Nintendo announced earlier this year that it had partnered with DeNA, a Japanese mobile developer, so it’s likely that DeNA will be developing a smartphone app for Nintendo’s sleep tracker, allowing a user to use their smartphone in tandem with the dock to track sleeping habits.

The device itself will make use of both sound and image data by using a microphone and camera. Once the data is collected, it will be sent to the cloud in order to be processed into meaningful data. Nintendo’s sleep tracker has multiple sensors that also record data about temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and more.

Keep a Lookout for More Details Soon

Unfortunately, the diagrams are written in Japanese, so there are still many details that are unclear. Nintendo is teaming up with ResMed, a US health company that creates equipment for treating sleep disorders, and hope to have the Nintendo sleep tracker out by 2016.

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the future is here – an alarm clock that can wake you up by smell.

Leaked Patent Documents Reveal Details About Nintendo Sleep Tracker