Nintendo Q1 Sales More Than Double, Profits Increase Five-Fold

Cashing in on the success of its popular Wii console and DS handheld, Nintendo posted staggering multiples for nearly all its monetary measures in its first quarter report released today. For the three-month period ending June 30, the company's sales increased 160% year-over-year to 340.4 billion yen ($2.818 billion), while profits saw a 416.0% increase to 80.2 billion yen ($664 million) compared to the same period last year. Nintendo's DS sold 6.98 million units in the quarter, more than doubling the Wii sales of 3.43 million units. The numbers bring year-to-date worldwide sales of DS and Wii to 47.27 million and 9.27 million, respectively. The two-to-one ratio of portable sales to home console sales was maintained on the software side as well during the quarter, with 34.26 million DS titles and 15.98 million Wii titles sold. Game Freak's Pokémon Diamond and Pokémon Pearl led the charge for Nintendo, with the two Nintendo-published Pokémon titles tag-teaming for 3.55 million in worldwide sales during the first quarter. For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, Nintendo predicts sales to reach 1.4 trillion yen ($12 billion) and profits to hit 245 billion yen ($2.08 billion), for 44.8% and 40.6% year-over-year increases, respectively. Nintendo expects to ship 26 million DS units and 16.5 million Wii consoles during the entire fiscal year.