Nintendo Q1 Net Sales Up 24% News

For the three month period ended June 30th 2008, Nintendo reported a 24% increase in net sales to ¥423 billion (£1.98 billion) compared to the same period last year. As a result operating income rose to ¥119 billion (£557.52 million) from ¥91 billion (£426.34 million) in the previous year, while net income increased from ¥80 billion (£374.80 million) to ¥107 billion (£501.30 million).

Buoyed by the success of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness/Explorers of Time, the DS continued to enjoy success overseas. However, the signs that the popular handheld could be slowing up were noticeable across Japan for the period, dropping from 2 million units in the period to 580,000 units. Total worldwide sales for the DS during the period stood at 6.94 million units, bringing life-to-date sales to 77.54 million units.

Wii's popularity continued to increase in both North America and Europe during the period, selling a total of 5.17 million units during the period (29.62 million units life-to-date), which represents an increase of 1.74 million units from the same period last year.

Key title sales on Wii during the period include Mario Kart Wii with sales of 6.42 million units since its launch, and Wii Fit that has shifted 3.42 million balance boards across the world.

Forecasts for the entire fiscal year ending March 31st 2009 remain unchanged from an earlier estimate of ¥325 billion (£1.52 billion) in net income from net sales of ¥1.8 trillion (£8.43 billion).