THE BUZZ: Nintendo has reported an annual loss for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012.

The firm posted a net loss of 37.3 billion yen and sales fell 36.2 percent year-on-year to 648 billion yen.

3DS sold 13.35 million units worldwide and 36 million games were sold during the year. The Wii sold 9.84 million units, down around a third, and software sales were recorded at 102.37 million, down from 171 million year-on-year.

Nintendo is predicting a return to profit in the current year, forecasting an operating profit of 35 billion yen and sales of 820 billion yen.

EGM’s TAKE: It’s been a rough year for Nintendo, the 3DS has spluttered since launch due to a lack of software and the Wii hasn’t had much to shout about either. It appears as if the company is readying for the Wii U launch and hopes that will be enough to bring the company back to profit. As long as it has a decent set of launch titles and constant support it may just pull it off, but we don’t expect the sort of sales explosion that the Wii produced, the two consoles are just too similar to warrant an upgrade for casual gamers.