Most Recent: Wii U

Nintendo’s President, Satoru Iwata, has already apologized to shareholders for the poor sales performance of the Wii U in 2013. But now the beleaguered executive is going one step further and slashing his salary to atone for Nintendo’s overly optimistic Wii U sales forecast.

Iwata will take a 50% reduction in his salary for the next six months. At that time, if Nintendo is still hurting financially, Iwata said he may continue to discount his salary through the Summer and beyond. Other members of Nintendo’s Board of Directors, including legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, will also reduce their salaries by 20 to 30 percent.

This isn’t the first time Iwata has cut his salary to save face in front of investors. In 2011, poor sales of the 3DS also forced Iwata to take a 50% pay cut.

[Source: AFP]

Just two games are included in this week’s Nintendo Download and both are classic NES titles of yore. Mighty Bomb Jack, the bombing-based platformer that’s not Bomberman, is now available through the Wii U eShop and Life Force, another of Konami’s side-scrolling alien shooters, has been added to the 3DS eShop.

More details on both games can be found here:

Wii U eShop

Mighty Bomb Jack – The hero of the game, Jack, must make his way through 16 levels of a pyramid in order to defeat the demon Belzebut and rescue the royal Pamera family. Navigate through action zones and Royal Palace rooms, discovering treasure chests along the way that hold money bags and useful power-ups.

3DS eShop

Life Force – Blast your way through six stages of intense action, alternating between horizontal- and vertical-scrolling environments, and take on wave after wave of enemies. You can go at it alone, or invite a friend to assist in the challenge. Do you have what it takes to save your planet from the monstrous Zelos?

It’s no secret that we here at Warp Zoned love the Wii U and want to see it succeed (just look here or here or here). However, it looks like that success will have to happen sometime in the future as Nintendo has announced that they’re cutting their Wii U sales forecast for the April 2013-March 2014 period by almost 70%.

Nintendo originally predicted that they would sell nine million Wii U consoles across the globe during the 12-month period. But now, they have revised that number down to 2.8 million. The company also expects to post their third consecutive annual operating loss. Sales expectations for the 3DS were also revised down. Previously pegged at 18 million, Nintendo now believes they’ll sell only 13.5 million during their fiscal year.

According to Reuters, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata apologized to shareholders and confirmed that he has no plans to resign: “There will be no major management shake-up in the short term,” Iwata said.

While 2013 was a rough year for Nintendo, their 2014 could be looking up as they plan to release at least a dozen games for the Wii U and 3DS including Super Smash Bros. 4, Mario Kart 8, Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta 2, X, Bravely Default, and several others.