Wii Pushes Nintendo Profit Up 60 Pct

By Geoff Duncan April 24, 2008

Wii Pushes Nintendo Profit Up 60 Pct

Nintendo has announced financial results for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2008: sales of its Wii video game console pushed the company’s profits up 60 percent compared to the same quarter last year, but slowing sales of its Nintendo DS handheld systems are leading the company to forecast only a reserved nine percent growth for its next fiscal year.

Nintendo says it shipped 18.61 million Wii consoles to retailers and distributors during the last 12 months, making for a worldwide total of 24.45 million Wii consoles out the door since they began shipping in November 2006. Nintendo forecasts shipping an additional 25 million Wii consoles during its new fiscal year. Nintendo builds about 1.8 million Wii consoles a month right now, and may increase monthly production to 2.4 million units during mid-2008. Right now, the Wii enjoys a worldwide games-to-console sale ratio of 6.07 games per system, meaning Wii users are pretty likely to purchase additional titles for their console rather than stick with a handful of games.

At the same time, the company said it expects sales of its Nintendo DS handheld game system to fall to about 28 million units next year, from a total of 30.3 million units this year. The Nintendo DS remains a healthy publishing platform, however: Nintendo says 5.24 DS games are sold for every DS handheld.

Nintendo’s conservative profit forecasts for its next year may have more to do with currency and economic fluctuations than worries about increased competition from Sony’s PlayStation 3 game console (which offers Blu-ray capability). Some industry watchers seem to feel consumers consider the Wii a casual gaming platform that doesn’t directly compete with the higher-powered (and significantly higher-priced) PS3.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Nintendo

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Gaming

Download these rare Wii U games before they disappear

Nintendo's Wii U is notorious for how hard it flopped and for providing the Switch with some of its best ports, but that doesn't mean it didn't have worthwhile games that are still exclusive to it. While many Wii U games have escaped to other platforms and Game Boy Advance games are now coming to Nintendo Switch, some experiences are uniquely suited to the Wii U GamePad or aren't able to make the jump elsewhere due to other outside factors.

As such, when the Wii U and 3DS eShops shut down on March 27, there are some unique Wii U games that will become significantly more expensive and tougher, if not outright impossible, to play. If you're one of the 13.5 million people who actually have a Wii U and are wondering what to pick up before the eShop closes, we recommend these stranded games.
Affordable Space Adventures

Gaming

Nintendo’s Wii Shop Channel and DSi shops are back online

Nintendo 3DS close-up.

After months of service outages, Nintendo's Wii Shop Channel and DSi Shop are back online.

Nintendo's two virtual marketplace services went down in March of this year. In a statement to Kotaku on the outage, Nintendo acknowledged the downtime but had nothing to report other than that the shops were undergoing maintenance and that it would provide updates on them at a later date. It seems it completely skipped the update and simply put both back online instead.

Gaming

Pick up these 7 great Switch games before Nintendo’s big eShop sale ends

Lego rey fighting kylo.

Steam isn't the only platform holding a big summer sale. Nintendo Switch users can currently get a whole bunch of games up to 50% off on the eShop from now through July 6 in a "Big Ol' Super Sale." While gaming sales are a dime a dozen, a Nintendo sale is especially significant. The company is usually stingy when it comes to discounting its exclusives, so events like this are rare.

The list of discounted games isn't one to ignore. While it doesn't include any recent releases, like Mario Strikers: Battle League, it's a great way to get some of 2021's best console exclusives at half price. Here are the games you should grab before the sale ends. Get them this week and you can take them on your Fourth of July vacation.
Monster Hunter Rise | $31