Nintendo soars as consoles fly out of the shops

Profit forecasts in Nitntendo Co, the market leading games console manufacturer, have leapt by 26 percent in the face of a revised expectation on sales of both the Wii and DS consoles.

With income scheduled to rise by almost 60 percent for the year, to a figure equivalent to $3.8 billion, the company has exceeded forecasts of city analysts by a considerable amount.

The company now looks set to eclipse Sony Corp, currently the biggest manufacturer of games consoles in the world, and take the lead in the market for the first time in 13 years, with sales of the Wii, the revolutionary motion sensing console that has taken the gaming world by storm, set to increase by over 40 percent and sales of the DS unit exceeding all expectations.
    

Revised forecasts a positive surprise

With stock having fallen previously by 17 percent since the end of July, the revised market forecasts were heralded as a ‘positive surprise’ by analysts and fund managers, with many pointing to excellent sales records of both the Wii and the DS in European markets as instrumental in the success of Nintendo.

Shares closed at 51,800 yen on the Osaka Exchange following the announcement, a rise of 8.4 percent being the greatest since November last year, and the weak presence of the yen against foreign currencies was alluded to as an aid in earnings as the majority of games consoles are sold to foreign markets.
    

Wii sells 26 million

Nintendo announced that sales of the Wii, the motion sensing games console on which players use a handset and move it in conjunction with the game they are playing, will reach over 26 million in the current year, representing an increase of over 50 percent on the previous years trading. The touch screen console, the DS, is scheduled to reach sales of o9ver 30 million, a figure almost nine percent up on the estimate given in July. Likewise, titles for the consoles have also risen, by over six percent to almost 200 million units.

The company has raised forecasts of operating profit to almost 650 billion yen, a 23 percent increase on previous estimates and a result of an estimated two trillion yen in projected annual revenue.

Nintendo’s forecasts are based on a yen that trades at 105 to the dollar and 160 to the euro, as the fluctuating market for the Japanese currency has led to revisions from previous estimates of 100 to the dollar and 155 to the euro.