With the mind-blowing sales performance of the Wii and DS
throughout 2007, it should surprise no one that Nintendo’s profits are on an upward
trend.
For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Nintendo’s
sales hit 1.316 trillion yen ($12.35 billion), or 84.7 percent greater than the
previous period. Profits were up even further, with 258.93 billion yen ($2.43
billion) in the nine months ended December 31 – nearly double that from the
previous year.
Nintendo maintained its expectations of profits for the
fiscal year ending March 31 to be 275 billion yen ($2.58 billion), though the
Kyoto-based company bumped its sales forecasts up more than five percent to 1.63
trillion yen ($15.29 billion).
The Japanese video games maker owes it success to the stunning
market acceptance of its latest hardware. Since their respective launches,
Nintendo has sold more than 17.6 million Nintendo DS systems and nearly 7.4
million Wii systems in the U.S, and accounted for more than half of all the
video game systems sold in 2007.
"By the end of 2007 we were sold out of virtually all
hardware, and much of our stock of software and accessories was sold out as
well, thanks to the broad appeal of Wii and Nintendo DS to core gamers, women,
families, grandparents - and seemingly everyone in between," said Cammie
Dunaway, Nintendo of America's executive vice president of sales &
marketing. "And that momentum continues here in the early weeks of 2008."