Amidst reporting full fiscal year results today, that revealed a profit increase of 12.5 percent to 98.4 billion yen (about $879 million) for the year ended in March, Nintendo announced a projected unit shipment forecast and price range for the Wii console.
In Japan Nintendo promised that the Wii will sell for no more than 25,000 yen (about $223) and in the U.S. Nintendo said that the console will not exceed $250 when it launches later this year. Speculation has put the Wii at $250 for some time now, but we still wouldn't be shocked to see a $199 price announcement. Either way it's likely to sell out this holiday season.
Currently the company expects to ship 6 million Wii units worldwide between the system's fourth-quarter launch and the end of the current fiscal year in March 2007. It should be noted that Sony is projecting the same number of PS3 shipments within this timeframe. Nintendo also is anticipating the sale of 17 million Wii games in the period. "Exact launch dates, identification of the launch library of titles and details on the unique Virtual Console aspect of Wii will be announced soon," Nintendo stated.
Sales for the last fiscal year totaled $877 million, up from the $776 million posted the year prior. This was due mostly to a combination of a foreign exchange gain and the tremendous success of the Nintendo DS and its corresponding software. The DS sold 11.5 million units in the last fiscal year, which is about double the total sold in the previous year.
For the current fiscal year sales are projected to grow by 18 percent globally, "based on anticipated continuing strong demand for the Nintendo DS portable game system, as well as a successful launch for Wii." Sales are expected to climb to $5.3 billion, but the company's profit for the year is currently forecast to drop by more than a third to $579 million.
With the DS performing quite well and Nintendo continuing to push its "blue ocean" philosophy with the Wii, analysts seem encouraged by what the future holds for the company.
"Sony's PS3 costs nearly 60,000 yen ($530) so if Nintendo can set a competitive price it will be able to win over a lot of customers, especially among DS users," said Tatsuo Nishimura, a portfolio manager at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management.
"They basically have a very stable and growing handheld business and it looks like for the first time in 10 years they will actually have a successful console business," commented Hiroshi Kamide, a game analyst for KBC Securities Japan. "So if you add the two together it would be very hard to come up with a negative view of the company."
