Nintendo just barely managed to make a profit last quarter

It’s earnings day at Nintendo, and the Japanese company surprised watchers by eking out an unexpected, albeit meagre, $8.9 million profit for its most recent quarter of business. Nintendo sold less than half a million Wii U consoles these past three months, but, nevertheless, that was enough to push the near-three-year-old device’s total sales to date past the 10 million mark. Sony notched that very figure for the PlayStation 4 in just nine months, which shows the gulf between Nintendo, a beloved company among the gaming community, and the leaders in the consumer console space. That said, considering its slow sales, Nintendo gamers sure are loyal customers — the average Wii U owner has six games and collectively they purchased over 4.5 million titles for the Wii U in the last quarter. Elsewhere, sales of all 3DS models surpassed 2 million, while Wii customers continue to buy up games, with 1.1 million bought during the past three months.