COMPANIES Nintendo aims to more than double global sales of its Wii console to 14m units this year in an effort to maintain its pole position as the world’s best-selling console.
Brisk sales of Wii consoles helped more than double Nintendo’s operating profit to a record Y226bn ($1.91bn) in the year ended March. The Japanese games maker forecast an operating profit of Y270bn in the current year.
The success of the Wii and Nintendo’s DS, a hand-held games machine, comes as Sony plays catch-up with its Japanese rival. Though Sony executives insist that the PlayStation 3 will win the test of longevity, analysts do not expect the company to start making money on each PS3 console sold until next year at the earliest. Goldman Sachs expects Sony to report an operating loss of Y70bn in the current fiscal year ending March 2008.
“We’re only half a year into the console wars and it’s too early to say who is victorious,” said Hiroshi Kamide, analyst at KBC Securities in Tokyo. “[Software makers] have an interest in making the PS3 work, so sales won’t be one-sided and the whole industry can profit.”
A big chunk of the Wii and DS’s success lies in the fact that Nintendo has successfully lured new demographics into gaming, such as young women and parents.
On the Tokyo subway, 20-something women carrying Louis Vuitton bags can regularly be seen whipping out a DS hand-held, busily tapping away at the screen with a small stylus.
At the end of March, European sales of the Wii totalled 1.3m units since being launched on December 8. Sony’s PS3 enjoyed a record-breaking launch in Europe last month, with about 600,000 sold in the first two days, in spite of it being the last and most expensive of the new games machines to come on the market.
In the current year, Nintendo said it aimed to sell 14m Wii consoles, up from 5.84m units in the fiscal year ended in March.
It is targeting sales of 22m units for the DS handheld, compared with 23.56m units in the previous year. In Japan, the Wii is outselling the PS3 by more than two to one.
The Wii has sold 2.1m units from its launch last December to April 22, research by Enterbrain found. The PS3 has sold 868,621 units from its launch last November to the same date.
But analysts say the tide could turn.
“The last two-three years has been dominated by casual gaming content,” said Mr Kamide.
“Core games – such as Grand Theft Auto – will be released this year, attracting more serious gamers.”
