One-time gaming titan Nintendo may be expanding to emerging markets in an effort to dig itself out of a giant financial hole.
Shortly after announcing a ¥46.4 billion ($457 million) operating loss in the last fiscal year, the company told Reuters that it will introduce new consoles and software in emerging markets.
But don't expect the Wii U or 3DS to launch in areas like China—Nintendo wants to develop hardware geared toward customers with lower incomes and limited gaming experience.
"It would be difficult to enter those markets if we didn't create something new," President Satoru Iwata (pictured) told Reuters. "For the mass market you need to provide something that most of the middle class can afford."
Iwata declined to elaborate on console or game design and specs, and said only that "emerging markets" include those areas where gaming potential "has not yet been cracked," Reuters said.
China, in particular, is a hot commodity; following the recent lifting of a ban on the sale of foreign consoles, competitor Microsoft announced plans to sell its Xbox One in the Asian country this fall.
Iwata told Reuters that the Chinese market "has a lot of potential, but I don't think the lifting of the ban has solved all of the difficulties in entering it."
Nintendo did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.
The gamemaker also made headlines this week when a social media campaign for same-sex relationships in the upcoming 3DS title Tomodachi Life went viral. Led by a gay 23-year-old gamer from Arizona, the #Miiquality movement urges Nintendo to add the option for players to enter into same-sex relationships, and eventually marriage, in the simulation game, set for a June 6 launch.