Topic: Nintendo: Profits Down, Still Setting Sales Records

[NWR_Karlie]

While Nintendo's sales and profits have both declined since last year's report, total DS sales are now greater than total Game Boy sales.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=23042

 Nintendo's recent fiscal report for the year ending March 31, 2009 holds some interesting data. Notably, sales of the DS series, including the DSi and DSi XL, came to 12.29 million units in the Americas and broke the annual hardware unit sales record. Worldwide DS sales were 27.11 million units this fiscal year, bringing the total units sold to 128.89 million units.    

This year's DS sales figures were in fact less than last fiscal year, but that didn't stop total sales beating those of the Game Boy (and Game Boy Pocket, and related models) and Game Boy Color, which had combined lifetime sales of 118.69 million units worldwide.    

Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver's 8.4 million units sold and The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks' 2.61 million units, along with the Japan-only Tomodachi Collection with 3.2 million units, have helped to increase the number of DS million-sellers to 114 from 91 as of the last fiscal year.    

Sales of Nintendo hardware lagged until the holiday season. The combination of a Wii price reduction, fewer strong software releases, and appreciation of the yen meant that total sales were down 22% at 1,434.3 billion yen. Sales outside of Japan came to 1,206.6 billion yen, accounting for 84.1% of total business.    

This meant that total Wii hardware sales worldwide were 20.53 million units for the fiscal year, giving a total of 70.93 million units sold to date. This is the best sales performance for a Nintendo console in history. On Wii, million-selling titles increased to 79 from 54 last fiscal year, pushed by 10-million-plus sellers Wii Sports Resort (16.14 million worldwide), Wii Fit Plus (12.65 million worldwide), and New Super Mario Bros. Wii (14.7 million worldwide).    

Despite a pessimistic media reception to these sales numbers, Iwata stated that selling 20 million Wii consoles (with plans to sell 18 million more next fiscal year) was still a good sales performance that would be a "high hurdle" for the company to beat in the future.    

Iwata clearly stated his feelings on the matter.  "I'm not pessimistic, and this is not a pessimistic forecast."

[BlackNMild2k1]

I tried to make a cynical thread out of this yesterday but I couldn't pull it off so I never hit the send button.


Nintendo going 3rd party.... blah blah blah down 22%... blah blah blah analyst say..... blah blah blah.

[NWR_Lindy]

It's more about Nintendo maintaining outright dominance vs. doing poorly.

I feel that there's a general question here: "On the console side, what is Nintendo going to pull out of its hat this time?"  There's going to come a point where they will have to step into the HD arena and bring their graphics on par with at least Xbox 360.  They're fine lagging behind, technologically speaking, on portables because it's a different market and there isn't such an expectation of a high-fidelity experience.  But they're gonna have to make that HD leap that they've been avoiding for the last 5+ years, eventually.

The question is when they will do that, and what they will do on top of that to make their experience unique.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm expecting Wii2H3D to be something very impressive and slightly out of left field especially for Nintendo.

There has been lots of R&D spending thanks to all the profits that Nintendo has been raking in (even on a 6 year low (22% drop) it is still more than Playstations LTD High), so I'm hoping they are spending it on something that immediately valuable to the consumer just as much as it is to the dev community and Nintendo themselves.

something like lots of onboard/expandable (holographic?) storage, complete overhaul of the online infrastructure/functionality, the UI, the controls and capabilities beyond just whats necessary for whatever game concept they are currently developing or have in mind.

I'm expecting all of that ontop of whatever new gimmick they have planned for the next gen (besides 3D which they've had since the GC) and real connectivity between 3DS and Wii2H3D.