Although overall sales have fallen by 11.1%, Nintendo has big plans for their new DS gaming system projecting 5 million DS sales by March 2005.
Game Boy software sales grew 26.7%, compared to the same term in the previous year, to 37.9 million units, while Game Cube software sales also rose 24.8% to 18.09 million units. Sales of Pokemon series for the Game Boy Advance continued to be robust. Total software sales increased 6.5% from a year earlier to 93.177 billion yen.
In view of the upcoming release of the Nintendo DS during the second half of fiscal 2004, the company estimates sales of 540 billion yen (a 4.9% year-on-year growth), a recurring income of 150 billion yen (a 199.2% year-on-year hike), and a net income of 90 billion yen (a 171.1 year-on-year rise) for the full-term. Nintendo aims to have sold 5 million units of the Nintendo DS and 15 million units of compatible game titles by March 2005. This sales goal for the Nintendo DS has been raised from the initial target of slightly more than 4 million units that the company released in September 2004. “5 million units is the number we can afford to ship rather than just a sales target,” Nintendo added. “Given the growing orders from domestic outlets, we decided to boost the number of assembly firms from the current two to three. We are confident that the Nintendo DS can sell as many as we produce.”
Source: NEAsia
