Nintendo has cut its profit forecast following weaker than expected sales in the first half of this fiscal year, lowering its projections for 3DS software sales by 4.1% and confirming that Wii U will be sold at a loss. Nintendo revealed that 22.19 million 3DS systems have been sold since the system launched in 2011, joining 97.18 million Wii systems sold to date and 152.5 million Nintendo DS systems.

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"Sales of the Nintendo 3DS hardware and software were weaker in overseas markets than expected," Nintendo said in a statement. "In addition, the yen appreciation was beyond the expectation level and the exchange losses totaled 23.2 billion yen" (roughly $290 million).Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata reduced the net income forecast for the full year, revealing that net income for the fiscal year may be 6 billion yen (roughly $75 million), compared to the previous estimate of 20 billion yen (roughly $250 million). Overall, sales for the first half of the fiscal year fell 6.8% compared to 2011, with Nintendo earning 201 billion yen (roughly $2.5 billion) compared to last year’s 215.7 billion yen (roughly $2.7 billion).Nintendo said it hopes to sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles this fiscal year, and senior managing director Yoshihiro Mori confirmed that Nintendo will take a loss on each system sold. “Manufacturing costs are expensive, and we priced the machine at a level customers would accept,” Iwata said. “It’s important for us to develop a healthy business next fiscal year by combining sales of hardware and software.”Nintendo has seen multiple losses lately, missing sales estimates in April and posting a $220 million loss in July . Last year, Nintendo posted a $924 million loss Nintendo announced a price drop for Wii earlier this month and revealed two new Wii bundles this morning . Wii U will launch on November 18th Source: Bloomberg

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.