Nintendo Sells Over 24M Wii, 70M Nintendo DS Units; FY2008 Sales Exceed $16B, Profits Over $2.4B

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New financial documents released by Nintendo have revealed that the company's Wii console has sold 24.45 million units worldwide since its 2006 release, with the handheld Nintendo DS selling 70.6 million units worldwide since its debut in 2004.

Of those figures, 18.61 million Wii and 30.31 million DS systems were sold in the company's 2008 fiscal year, which ran from April 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008.

Due to strong hardware and software sales in the 2008 fiscal year, including Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) and Pokemon Diamond and Pearl (NDS), Nintendo saw its net income jump to 1.67 trillion yen ($16.01 billion), a 73% increase over the past fiscal year.

After taking operating costs and taxes into account, Nintendo was left with a 257.3 billion yen ($2.4 billion) profit for the 2008 fiscal year, 47.7% more than that of the 2007 fiscal year.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 24, 2008 8:11 AM

    Can't Wait to see Microsoft and Sony try to answer against those numbers...

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      April 24, 2008 8:12 AM

      They can't keep up on the hardware with the wii but software 360 sales >>>>>> wii.

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        April 24, 2008 8:12 AM

        Attach rate yes, total software sales no. Nice spin though.

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          April 24, 2008 8:28 AM

          Since you're obviously an expert on these numbers, what percent of those software sales were published by Nintendo themselves?

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            April 24, 2008 8:56 AM

            [deleted]

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              April 24, 2008 10:32 AM

              So that means its sold over 3 times as many as the 360 there? Haha!

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            April 24, 2008 10:11 AM

            Does it matter? If the Wii has more software sales than the 360, then the Wii has more software sales than the 360, it doesn't matter who made the games.

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              April 24, 2008 10:33 AM

              Actually it does, unless Wii owners are happy with only Nintendo games and shovelware minigames from third parties.

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                April 24, 2008 11:06 AM

                but i gotta go with once again, how does that matter? to me the developer doesn't matter...look at audiosurf on steam, its made by some random person probably in his garage and yet its a crazy fun game...and I still bought it, and I'm happy. As long as Wii owners are at least getting quality games who cares who the dev is.

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                  April 24, 2008 3:02 PM

                  The third party publishers who can't compete care. They sell a lot more software on the 360 and PS3, hence the reason I asked how those Wii software sales were when Nintendo was removed.

                  I understand it is a touchy subject with some people, but I don't really care if you think it matters or not. I just want to know how they compare without Nintendo.

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                    April 24, 2008 7:57 PM

                    but if a third party company actually released a good game on the wii i bet alot of people would buy it...if only that day ever comes!

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                      April 25, 2008 8:33 AM

                      Why would they, when all previous games they thought were "good" sold at the same rate as crappy games? When you throw enough crap at a wall, some of it will stick. What incentive do they have?

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          April 24, 2008 8:36 AM

          Remove WiiSports and WiiPlay and let's talk.

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            April 24, 2008 10:12 AM

            Wii Sports I assume doesn't count that would be dumb being as since they make no "profit" on it, they profit on the Wii itself.

            And Why remove WiiPlay? Thats like saying ok remove Halo3 and Call of Duty 4 from 360 then we'll talk....C'mon man grow up.

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              April 24, 2008 10:28 AM

              because its a $10 game that comes with a controller. If Halo 3 sold for $50 and came with a 360 controller its sales numbers would be even larger

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                April 24, 2008 10:40 AM

                Hey since we're at it, lets not count Mario Kart either. Or Wii Fit. Hell, Wii games are cheaper too, that's gotta cost em some points.

                This logic is retarded.

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                  April 24, 2008 10:52 AM

                  no... if you're going to buy another Wii controller (which you obviously must because singleplayer games for the Wii are minimal) you could pay $40 or pay $50 and get a bunch of games on par with Wii Sports as well. If you were going to buy a 360 controller for $40 and you saw a version with Geometry Wars 2 suddenly you'd see Geometry Wars 2 sales are through the roof. Does that mean Geometry Wars 2 isn't good? no, but the sales are greatly inflated by virtue of it being packed in with what amounts to an essential item (how many people own Wii's with only the 1 included controller?)

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                    April 24, 2008 12:23 PM

                    I only have 1 controller.

                    I think it's dumb argument. Sorry. I mean I get your point, but it doesn't change the fact that the game sold so well.

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              April 24, 2008 10:30 AM

              The financial statement also says the Wii has 26 million-sellers. Take away those 2 and the Wii still has 24. Even with a year head start, the 360 doesn't have that much more, less than 30 according to wikipedia.

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                April 24, 2008 11:08 AM

                I'm abit confused even though I think your trying to defend me haha, are you saying they have 26 games that sold at least a million copies?

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                  April 24, 2008 11:12 AM

                  Yes, 26 games that sold at least a million copies. Many of those are 3rd party games too. It disproves the notion that Wii buyers don't buy games.

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                    April 24, 2008 11:17 AM

                    disproving it would be using a number like attach rate, not a random sampling of shit games that sold (woo Carnival Games)

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                      April 24, 2008 11:26 AM

                      Personally I think both systems have their flaws....

                      In theory the more people the own a console the more games that will be sold, therefore since the Wii has more consoles on the market, there sold be more games with a million sales

                      On the other hand...attach rate shows % and since the Wii has more sales than the others that means you need even more sales than the others.

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                      April 24, 2008 11:30 AM

                      The moving goalpost... now the software has to pass a certain standard? Who gets to set these standards. Money is money.

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                        April 24, 2008 11:42 AM

                        haha true that

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                        April 24, 2008 11:46 AM

                        the point is selling a million copies of 26 games doesn't prove anything because its all relative to the number of potential buyers. If game X sells 10 million copies but there are 100 million with that console while game Y sells 5 million but only 15 million own that console that's how you prove that one demographic is buying more games. For continued profitability each console maker wants their gamers buying games for their system and right now the 360 attach rate is destroying the other consoles. That means MS can count on continued revenue from those people for years whereas Nintendo sees far less beyond the initial sale of the Wii plus a few controllers if a significant portion of Wii owners are only interested in Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Wii Play

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                          April 24, 2008 12:15 PM

                          What about the publisher, the peole who will determine which console to develop for. See, in your example, the publisher that sells to 10% of a 100 million install base is still better off than the one who sold 33 % of a 15 million install base. Why should he care what the attach rate is?

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                          April 24, 2008 12:57 PM

                          Your point is retarded because the optimal answer would be to sell 1 console to a guy who will buy 50 games. Companies want to maximize the units sold to maximize their profits, there's no way around this.

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                            April 24, 2008 7:56 PM

                            i agree here completely...attach rate means really nothing to me...the more consoles you sell the actual harder it is to get the attach rate higher...but as the guy above says, if i sell one console and that one guy buys 50 games does that my me the most successful? i have a 50 attach rate and microsoft has what....a 3.something? haha thats nothing! I have 50!

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                          April 24, 2008 3:11 PM

                          didnt recent figures reveal on average the wii has an attachment rate of 3.7 and the 360 & ps3 are arround 4.6? Thats hardly destroying the competition.

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                            April 24, 2008 3:27 PM

                            [deleted]

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                              April 25, 2008 12:13 AM

                              So what is a successful attach rate? 5.0? 4.9? 8.5? What? It all arbitrary. And stop using Wiisports as a crutch, it's not counted in NDP attach rates (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/24/npds-latest-software-tie-ratios-for-consoles/ ) . Do you see NPD count Wiisports as a separate software sale every month? No. NPD isn't some amateur organization, they didn't just learn to count attachrates yesterday. Wiisports is only being reported by others as a million seller because it's sold in Japan separately at full price.

                              Looking at the NPD attachrates, even if you deduct 4 million Wiiplay from the Wii 5.3 attachrate, it is still 4.85 ( 8.8 million Wii in USA x 5.3 = 46.64 million softwares - 4 million Wiiplay, divided by 8.8 million). That's higher than the PS3. The Wii has been on the market 17 months. The 360 had 29 months to build that 7.5 ratio.

                              Maybe it won't catch the 360's attachrate, but it's not as poor as it's being talked about here.

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                April 24, 2008 12:00 PM

                [deleted]

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        April 24, 2008 8:43 AM

        Well.. if what that NY Times guy said, then yes.. But I don't think he's including Japan sales...

        And if the Wii keeps selling like it has been, then those numbers shouls go up too...

        I don't see why people can't give credit to Nintendo on this one :)

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          April 24, 2008 9:03 AM

          From a business perspective sure they deserve credit.

          However, other than a few gems (Metroid Prime 3) the console's selling point has been nothing more than hype. Hell just to play SSBB comfortably you need to buy another controller which is pretty stupid. IMHO they have created a GC2 with an added bonus for them of getting the third parties on board because of their ability to shovel waggle ware at all sorts of new gamers who don't know better. Add in the fact that the online service is a joke (SSBB I am looking at you!) and I can't help but say I am disappointed.

          Does it have potential still? Well of course. From a gamer perspective I really don't think they deserve too much credit right now though.

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            April 24, 2008 9:23 AM

            From a gaming industry perspective they deserve endless credit for pulling in a previously disinterested audience. Don't mistake the consoles selling point, while hype has certainly come into play, it's value is in the novelty of a new interface to games and fun for non-gamers.

            I doubt you will ever be pleased with it, and I doubt the traditional gamer will ever see it as anything but the console with "a few gems."

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            April 24, 2008 9:42 AM

            The controls alone deserve alot of credit. Some people like to get involved when playing games with friends. It's pretty good in games like metroid too, but it suffers because of the graphics.. so it seems people don't take it seriously.

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      April 24, 2008 8:43 AM

      Does it matter? Nintendo isn't competing according to them, they went out and got a different market.

      Still boggels me that it's selling so well, I thought every billy and jane, grandpa and grandma already had one; probably what they mentioned on an early shackcast, they think they need to buy a new one for every new game.

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        April 24, 2008 8:55 AM

        I know they aren't competing.. but they are competing... :)

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          April 24, 2008 3:22 PM

          Not really. It doesn't seem Microsoft or Sony is suffering much on the software front because of the success of the Wii. Nintendo is expanding well into a new market but they are still showing to be pretty insignificant in the previously established market.

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