Nintendo Confirms 44% Of Wii Units Hooked To Net News

Nintendo has today confirmed that of the 3.19 million Wii units sold by the end of December 2006, 1.4 million (around 44%) have been hooked up to the internet. News of the online attachment rate for the system, which falls a little short of the figures touted by Microsoft for Xbox 360 (between 70%-85% during 2006) was announced as the videogame giant unveiled its financial results for the first nine months of the fiscal year.

Net sales for the period, which ran from April 1st 2006 to December 31st 2006, stood at 712.6 billion Yen (£2.99 billion), up 72.% compared to the same period in the previous year. Operating income also experienced a massive jump, up from 82.8 billion Yen (£347.8 million) in the first nine months of the 2005/06 fiscal year, to 167.6 billion Yen (£704.1 million) - a rise of 102.5%. Net Income increased by 43.1% on the year, from 92.2 billion Yen to 131.9 billion Yen (£554.1 million).

Nintendo also announced that global sales of Nintendo DS topped 18.88 million units for the first three months of the fiscal year, with New Super Mario Brothers selling 8.64 million units around the world. Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is also proving to be something of a success, with over 3.5 million unique users making over 100 million connections by the end of 2006.

The company stands firm on its projection of shipping 6 million Wii units by the end of the fiscal year (March 31st 2007).