Nintendo turns to toys and China — but these won’t fix what’s wrong

Nintendo needs cash fast, so it’s going to bring Mario and Luigi into the physical world … maybe it can do the same thing with Mario’s coins and hit up one of those cash-for-gold places.

Following its dismal financial report on Wednesday, Nintendo held an investor event early yesterday to detail how it will return to profitability and boost lagging Wii U sales. That led to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata dropping some info about a few of the company’s biggest projects. First, he revealed that the publisher will introduce games and action figures that interact with one another similar to Activision’s Skylanders, which have made over $2 billion since launching in 2011. The other big announcement was that the Kyoto-based hardware manufacturer plans to develop new machines for emerging markets like China. These are both moves that could help turn the company around, but after losing $229 million for its fiscal 2014, it may need something more.