Japan Wii Sales Released, Nintendo May Beat Forecast

Following strong sales of the Wii, DS and first-party games, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has said that the company could exceed its own sales forecast for 2006.

According to estimates made by Famitsu, the Nintendo Wii sold roughly 370,000 units at launch in Japan. Wii Sports, which was not bundled in Japan, sold the most with 176,880 units. Wii Play sold 171,888 copies while The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess sold 145,068 copies, followed by WarioWare: Smooth Moves with 63,086. The only third-party game to break the top five was Tecmo's Super Swing Golf with 12,673 units sold, indicating that Nintendo remains the largest competitor to publishers trying to make headway on the new system. The software tie-in rate was 1.69 per console, almost double the PS3's sub-1.00 rating.

DS sales are running strong, prompting Nintendo president Satoru Iwata to suggest that Nintendo may beat sales forecasts this year. "Some analysts say the largest rival of the Wii is the DS. But if you take a look at DS sales in the United States in the Thanksgiving week or DS sales in Japan in the week of the Wii launch, there has been little impact," Iwata said.

Nintendo is hoping to sell 4 million Wii systems by the end of 2006, with another 2 million sold by March, 2007. Nintendo also plans to ship 20 million DS units by March, but with 10.9 million units already sold during the first half of the fiscal year, that amount may increase.

Source: Reuters