Portable Planet

There’s no denying that Nintendo has had an enviable streak of success lately — between Wii and DS the company is reporting record profits. There’s certainly a lesson to be learned by their strategy of concentrating their efforts on “fun” over horsepower. Details from Nintendo follow.

Nintendo Co., Ltd. today announced that strong sales of Nintendo DS hardware and software and the successful launch of Wii have led to record consolidated sales and operational profit for the nine-month period ending Dec. 31, 2006 (*see attached). Recurring and net profits also set record highs. Nintendo maintains projections for record financial results through its fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2007.

Thanks to extremely strong Nintendo DS sales and the successful launch of Wii, Nintendos consolidated net sales were up 72.8 percent over the same nine-month period last year, and operating income was up 102.5 percent.

Nintendo also announced:
During the first nine months of the current fiscal year, consolidated worldwide shipments of 19 software titles for Nintendo platforms reached or surpassed 1 million units. These include three Wii titles, 13 Nintendo DS titles and three Game Boy Advance titles.
Nearly 1.4 million Wii hardware systems have connected to the Internet worldwide (as of 1/24/07)
Approximately 1.5 million Virtual Console games have been downloaded and sold to customers worldwide (as of 1/24/07)
More than 3.5 million unique users have enjoyed game play on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for Nintendo DS, with far more than 100 million connections (as of 1/24/07)

The company held firm to its previous forecast for consolidated worldwide shipments of 6 million Wii hardware systems by the end of the fiscal year. Nintendo manufactured 4 million Wii systems by the end of 2006 and during that time sold and delivered 3.19 million to its distributors and retail customers around the world.