DS Sales + Wii Titles Raise Nintendo Forecasts News

Nintendo's triumphant return to form continued today as the Japanese manufacturer raised its full-year profit target by 20%, based upon strong sales of the Nintendo DS and increased targets for Wii titles.

Increasing the expected sales of Nintendo DS by 15% to 23 million units and DS titles by 22% to 100 million, Nintendo has also enjoyed stronger then expected demand for Wii titles, which should reach 21 million by the end of the financial year compared to previous expectations of 17 million.

For the fiscal year ending March 31st 2007, Nintendo expects net income to rise to 120 billion yen (£519.39 million), compared to previous expectations of 100 billion yen (£432.75 million) made in October 2006. Sales are expected to increase to reach 900 billion yen (£3.89 billion) compared to a previous forecast of 740 billion yen (£3.20 billion) in October, marking a significant increase from last year's sales of 509.2 billion yen (£2.20 billion).

The announcements seemed to surprise many financial analysts who predict continued good times for the Japanese giant, as Nintendo benefits from the technique of making the money on the games as apposed to the hardware. During 2006 the Nintendo DS took eight spots in the 10 best selling titles from 2006 according to recent research from Enterbrain!, to bring some comparison, the PSP best-selling title sat at No. 30 in the chart.

Nintendo's expectations of shifting 6 million Wii units before the year end remains the same, though Yuuta Sakurai, an analyst at Nomura Research Institute Ltd, noted this as being the number of units they can "make" as opposed to "sell".