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Nintendo Cites Wii, DS for Surging Profits

Nintendo’s unique approach to gaming that had skeptics chattering at the Wii’s release seems to be paying out in spades. According to the company’s latest financial information, released Thursday, net profits for the financial year ending March 31 are up 77.2 percent from last year to $1.47 billion.

Nintendo cited the strong success of the Nintendo DS portable system and Wii for its profits. According to a release, the company sold 23 million DS portables in the fiscal year, jacking up lifetime sales to 40 million systems. It also sold 123 million Nintendo DS games. On the Wii front, sales have been tallied at 5.84 million since the system’s introduction, along with 29 million games.

Sights are set high for the coming year. Nintendo expects to sell 14 million Wii systems and 55 million Wii games, as well as 22 million more Nintendo DS units and 130 million DS games.  Consolidated sales are forecasted to rise 18 percent, and operating profits to rise 20 percent.

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Nick Mokey
As Digital Trends’ Managing Editor, Nick Mokey oversees an editorial team delivering definitive reviews, enlightening…
Pick up these Nintendo games you can only get on Wii U and 3DS
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The eShops on the 3DS and Wii U will shut down on March 27, so players are splurging on great games that they want to pick up in the final days of each storefront's life span. If you can't drop any cash on games for these systems before then though, you're probably wondering what's available from them for free. For the most part, it's demos, as the 3DS and Wii U weren't really known for their free-to-play offerings. Even then, many of the available free-to-play games -- or "free-to-start" titles as Nintendo called them in that era -- won't have much use after the eShops cease game sales because most of their content is gated by microtransactions.

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