Alongside this morning's shocking announcement that Nintendo would drop the price of its 3DS handheld system a massive $80 just six months after its release, Nintendo also released its fiscal first quarter earnings, and the news is more than a little grim.

Overall sales were down 50% from the same period in 2010, with a total earning of ¥93 billion ($1.2B). That led to an overall operating loss of ¥38 billion ($489M) for the company. In addition, Nintendo revised its overall profit projection for fiscal 2012 by a hefty margin, projecting a profit of ¥20 billion ($257M). That marks an 82% drop from the ¥110 billion ($1.41B) it had previously projected.

Nintendo has cited a number of factors in explaining the income drop, including stronger-than-expected yen appreciation and its upcoming sales outlook for the holiday season. Above all else though, it appears the far slower-than-expected sales of the 3DS were heavily to blame. The system has only sold 710,000 units thus far, and only 4.53 million pieces of 3DS software have sold at retail.

To compare, other DS systems sold a collective 1.44 million units during the same period, while the Wii, which recently saw its own price drop and bundle adjustment (to include Mario Kart Wii) sold 1.56 million units.