Nintendo said on Friday that sales of its Wii U consoles had flopped, pushing it to a third consecutive annual loss and raising a question mark over its future in a home console market increasingly dominated by Sony and Microsoft.

The company that got its start making playing cards more than a century ago 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 President Satoru Iwata, who last year pledged to return the hobbled game maker to profit this business year, apologized to shareholders at a briefing in Osaka, but said his failure to fulfil his promise did not mean he had to resign.