Nintendo has admitted that the sales of its Wii U console have flopped and the company is facing a third consecutive annual loss. The company slashed its global Wii U sales forecast for the year to March 31 by almost 70 percent to 2.8 million units. It cut its sales forecast for its handheld 3DS to 13.5 million units from 18 million. The Wii U is the successor to its hit Wii console.

Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, who last year pledged to return the game maker to profit this business year, said sorry to shareholders at a briefing in Osaka. Unlike the good old days where he would have to rite a haiku and ritually disembowel himself in the Nintendo carpark he said that his failure to fulfill his promise did not mean he had to resign. There will be no major management shake-up in the short term Iwata said.

However it is likely that the firm might have to do something. Nintendo so far has refused to allow its games to be played on machines built by competitors or on tablets or other mobile devices that are used by gamers. It popular family-friendly games are losing out to more hard-core titles like "Grand Theft Auto" which can’t be played on the Wii.

Nintendo expects an operating loss of $335.76 million when it had been expecting a small profit.