Nintendo releases Q1 sales results, thinks it's not going away

by Nate Mallory { Jul 25th 2007 at 2:35PM }

It should come as no surprise to any of our readers that the Wii is selling pretty well, hindered almost solely by its own production problems. Today, Nintendo confirmed any suspicions in announcing its Q1 sales figures -- 3.43 million Wiis sold since the beginning of April, bringing the running worldwide total to 9.27 million. In light of the greater than expected success, it also upped its forecast for the entire year's Wii sales, now predicting to sell upwards of 16.5 million Wiis by April 2008. What do you think? Can it be done?

And what do you get when you remove those pesky production constraints? The company also confirmed nearly twice as many Nintendo DS' sold in the same period (nearly 7 million), and it now thinks it can sell another 19 million this year. Between the two systems and the confirmed million sales of both Super Paper Mario and Mario Party 8 (and a couple little guys named Diamond and Pearl), Nintendo verified it's reaping windfall profits on the order of $666 million in just three months, an increase of 416% over last year. Some out there may think the company's recent success isn't going to last, but Nintendo certainly believes otherwise.

Tags: forecast, marioparty8, sales, superpapermario

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Aaron @ Jul 25th 2007 2:44PM

That is pretty amazing. However, hasn't the PS2 sold something like 120 million consoles over it's lifetime. As great as the Wii is, I don't think it has the staying power for those kids of numbers.

That said, I'm loving everything about the Wii. I have a solid collection of 6 or 7 games now, and that could double by the end of this year. Not to mention the 20 or so VC titles I've downloaded so far. This is the best console I've ever owned, and the only one I've ever played against my mother!

seetrapp @ Jul 25th 2007 2:48PM

Nintendo Wii Fanboy:
Wii is selling pretty well, hindered almost solely by its own production problems.

Does this means we must go back to the World War II days of "Wii-less Wednesdays"? Or something like that?

david @ Jul 25th 2007 2:58PM

The Wii has sold 9 million in 7 months. I bet it hits at least 18 million by April 2008. It will easily meet 16 million. It's selling over a million a month and that's likely to increase after the release of several big games towards the end of the year, the holiday season, and the possible release in the beginning of 2008.

Gordon @ Jul 25th 2007 3:16PM

I agree with you david, Nintendo is being modest saying 16.5.

duron @ Jul 25th 2007 3:30PM

i think the reason it might outsell ps2 is because it hits an even wider audience.. old people and young people alike, as well as casual gamers, and hardcore gamers.. you cant be a hardcore gamer and not love mario, zelda, and other stuff that only comes out on wii.

Nate Mallory @ Jul 25th 2007 3:53PM

Sales forecasts are just that: estimates by the company as to how well they'll do. They want to impress right now with the announcement, but you can bet dollars to frickin' donuts they'll do it as conservatively as possible.

How much more would they like to come back later this year and say "Look, we beat even OUR OWN predictions!" than admit they overreached in their upping the forecast? The latter makes for double bad PR: the original increase looks deceitful, and the failure to meet forecast sales would have an immediate impact on their stock price.

Craigo @ Jul 25th 2007 3:58PM

I'd note that the prediction of 16.5m units shipped is for FY08, from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008, and not lifetime to April 2008. They're actually predicting around 22m sold to retail by that time.

Valien @ Jul 25th 2007 4:54PM

Although the PS2 has sold 120+ million one of the main reasons it did so well is that it was the only machine on the market at the time that had awesome technology (DVD player for the masses!) and ZERO competition. The N64 was dying. MS was just coming out with the XBox and we all know how well that went.

Now we have competition - 360, PS2 and PS3, Wii...

I think it could top 100+ million in a few years...that would be way cool. We'll just have to see I guess...

Mr Khan @ Jul 25th 2007 5:07PM

You missed a few points there, though. The reason PS2 sold 120 million was because of a cycle that started with the fact that it premiered when the Dreamcast was on the way out, which allowed it to net all 3rd party projects out there at the time. Following this, the PS2 got sales because it had games, and got games because it had sales

None of the consoles today has that kind of stranglehold on the 3rd parties, but everything Nintendo's doing right now is golden

Alisha Karabinus @ Jul 25th 2007 5:11PM

Psst, did you guys notice that this is a new guy? Fresh meat! :)

Anticrawl @ Jul 25th 2007 5:22PM

People also forget that 120 million ps2's includes those first couple of waves of ps2's that were screwed up including recalls, widespread failures, disc scratching, etc. Not to mention the millions pawned or traded to get a slim ps2 which is counted in the overall numbers.

hvnlysoldr @ Jul 25th 2007 5:43PM

I agree with Nate. And also point out that MS did say they were going to ship 10 million for the holiday and then 12 million down from 15. And didn't reach even the reduced 12.

@Alisha Just cause we rough you up and Nate is new doesn't mean we have to crush his spirit now. Wait what. Never mind. Perhaps because it's well written and we want to trumpet Nintendo's success that we haven't even noticed. I don't remember if he was even introduced.

Alisha Karabinus @ Jul 25th 2007 6:20PM

I'm for equal-opportunity spirit-crushing around here. But nah, he was ready to go and chomping at the bit, so we thought we'd release him sans intro. Feel free to chase him around and lob (soft) rocks. Pebbles, maybe.

Mr Khan @ Jul 25th 2007 6:41PM

damn, i wouldn't have noticed a new author if you hadn't pointed it out

Of course, i usually only check the author of any joystiq affiliate story if i find a pattern or subtle bias in their stories, like how old Vladimir Cole always brought up maverick topics, Andrew Yoon's peculiar standards of quality (peculiar even beyond his fanboy affiliation), and JC's posts, always rife with nostalgia

Nintendo releases Q1 sales results, thinks it's not going away