Nintendo profits spike on DS success

White-hot handheld sales raise game giant's quarterly earnings 85 percent, profits 10.2 percent; 21 million units of dual-screen handheld now sold worldwide.

When Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo DS at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2004, skeptics dismissed it as a mere gimmick. Just over two years later, the company has sold over 21 million units of the dual-screen handheld. During its first fiscal quarter, which ended on June 30, 2006, the company sold nearly 4.54 million DSs, up from 1.38 million during the same period in 2005. The DS sales figures included sales of the new DS Lite, which launched successfully in the US and Europe during the quarter, and has been a hot-ticket item in Japan since it went on sale there in March.

Spurred on by the DS Lite's success, Nintendo has announced robust earnings. Its total FY Q1 revenue was 130.9 billion yen ($1.1 billion), a massive 85 percent increase from the 70.7 billion yen ($605.9 million) it took in from April to June 2005. The company's net income--that is, profit--was 15.6 billion yen ($133.6 million) for the quarter, a 10.2 percent increase over the 14.1 billion yen ($120.8 million) profit it reported during the same period the previous year.

The results have caused Nintendo to reevaluate its estimates for the rest of its financial year, which ends on March 31, 2007. The company has raised 12-month revenue projections for the year from 600 billion yen ($5.14 billion) to 640 billion yen ($5.48 billion), up from its 509 billion yen ($4.36 billion) FY 2005 revenues. Annual profit forecasts have increased from 65 billion yen ($557 million) to 83 billion yen ($711 million). However, that figure is below the 98.4 billion yen ($843.4 million) profit it recorded the previous year.

As for the DS, the company now expects to sell 17 million units during its 2006 fiscal year, up from the previous estimate of 16 million. Software forecasts have also been revised from 70 million to 75 million DS games for the 12-month period.

Nintendo's other handheld, the Game Boy Advance, is starting to show its age. The portable sold some 680,000 units from April to June, versus 980,000 during the same quarter in 2005. To date, though, GBA sales dwarf that of its successor, with 75.8 million units sold worldwide--a figure the company predicts will reach 77.6 million units by March 2007.

Sales of Nintendo's aging GameCube console also fell, going from 260,000 units during the second calendar quarter of 2005 to 150,000 units during the same three months in 2006. That said, the Japanese game giant is much more bullish about its next-gen console, the Wii. Nintendo predicts that it will sell 6 million units of the console between the time it goes on sale this fall and March 2007, with some 17 million Wii games being sold during the same period.

216 Comments

  • blue-death

    Posted Aug 1, 2006 8:36 am PT

    Get a cf player from lik-sang and a compact flash card and bam! u can have music movies and text files on ur ds or gba and it supports multitasking unlike the psp which i has one of those

    I like them both but people with a psp and no ds constantly bash the features which i feel inclined to inform people about the fact that the ds with a cf player and card is cheaper then a brand new psp and has all the features. So to buy a psp for media is dumb as games and gameplay should be most important in getting a system of any type.

  • rikardo10

    Posted Aug 1, 2006 2:03 am PT

    nintendo rocks

  • NotKarmaMan

    Posted Jul 31, 2006 8:41 pm PT

    Good to hear.

    "
    jwsoul
    still thats not much more than WOW must make 6 million players and all and thats just a games company lol... Why all the Sony bashing i own a PSP and its great... i use it for all its functions well apart frm UMDS i jst download films instead a DS cant do that can it + MP3s not only that with Tekken and the possibility of FF games coming to the PSP i know i made the right choice for myself. U no most you guys are full of it just do MY HEAD IN COMING onto the NIN boards just full of arrogant kids whgo bash everything they dont understand i bet half of u had a PSP couldnt work out how to download movies to it cried and sent it bak got a DS and played Dogs fair enough i say but do not bash somthing that has its own quality arggh

    VegetaMaelstrom makes a great point this is the last time i come to a NIN board i do not see this kind of fanboyisum on any of the other console boards and it gets on my wick... "

    not so much. dude, i think you had 10 periods, 9 were in 3 elipseses. I read it a few times, and all i got out of that was wondering why youre here. Wait... i dont have a psp... but what FF games are on it? I know FF3 is out, or will be soon, for the DS. I'm not a very big fan of tekken myself, but maybe thats just because i havent really played it too much. If half of us had PSPs and returned them because we couldnt figure out how to download movies on them that would make us incredibly retarded because if you bought a PSP for movies you are a sad excuse for a human being. there are better devices to do that for, with better battery life. it has its own quality, both of them do. not everyone that has a DS likes dogs. i have it, i think it blows. On this last note id like to say that im not a fanboy, i just hate your kind. I plan on getting a ps3 and a psp in the future, but for now i have my xbox, gcn, ds to keep me company until i get my wii. congrats for nintendo and all their accomplishments, its good to see them not going under for their morals. Good day.

  • morpheusnj

    Posted Jul 31, 2006 4:14 pm PT

    nintendo is doin really good with DS..its keeping it alive IMO...and well the Wii will hopefully make nintendo not rely on portable stuff to keep it alive and stable...

  • jwsoul

    Posted Jul 31, 2006 6:26 am PT

    still thats not much more than WOW must make 6 million players and all and thats just a games company lol... Why all the Sony bashing i own a PSP and its great... i use it for all its functions well apart frm UMDS i jst download films instead a DS cant do that can it + MP3s not only that with Tekken and the possibility of FF games coming to the PSP i know i made the right choice for myself. U no most you guys are full of it just do MY HEAD IN COMING onto the NIN boards just full of arrogant kids whgo bash everything they dont understand i bet half of u had a PSP couldnt work out how to download movies to it cried and sent it bak got a DS and played Dogs fair enough i say but do not bash somthing that has its own quality arggh

    VegetaMaelstrom makes a great point this is the last time i come to a NIN board i do not see this kind of fanboyisum on any of the other console boards and it gets on my wick...

  • kingassman

    Posted Jul 30, 2006 9:06 am PT

    Well if they plan to sell 6 million units in that short of a time, it looks like there might not be any shortages of the Wii.

  • King_Dodongo

    Posted Jul 30, 2006 8:07 am PT

    nintendo is smart. they give us quality products unlike others (cough sony cough) with only gimmicks and arrogance

  • xpac040488

    Posted Jul 30, 2006 7:18 am PT

    w00t

  • fickeledperson

    Posted Jul 30, 2006 1:14 am PT

    ndsl kicks cajones

    alot of them

  • LINK2K9

    Posted Jul 29, 2006 9:16 pm PT

    Nintendo took a gamble, and man, did it pay off! Great work Nintendo, the NDS's line up looks awesome, and I can't wait to play another quircky game like Brain Age.

  • FortuneC00kie

    Posted Jul 29, 2006 3:11 pm PT

    I heart Nintendo and their marketing.

  • Goku-stream

    Posted Jul 29, 2006 6:39 am PT

    Guess I'm a statistic, being one of those 21 million, but hey, this is one of the happiest I've felt being part of some statistics. Go Nintendo!

  • Bazook

    Posted Jul 28, 2006 5:20 pm PT

    Man no wonder these consoles are cheap I mean they're getting enough money by the minute

  • elite11

    Posted Jul 28, 2006 4:54 pm PT

    This is why they will be on top in the future,they took out sega now they will let microsoft and sony destroing each other.And all nintendo has to do is si back and watch.

  • Hellectro

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 5:50 pm PT

    Nintendo just keeps making money. Woo.

    And, yeah, the GameCube didn't sell as much as the Xbox or PS2, but even with that Nintendo made more money off the GameCube than Sony and Microsoft did with the Xbox and PS2.

    Because they kept the manufacturing cost lower than the retail price.
    Oh, so smart.

  • krazykone12

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 11:10 am PT

    enoslives7 - "too bad the gamecube was a trmendous flop"
    double idiot

  • Gamespotvic

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 10:26 am PT

    This is why Nintendo is still king of portables.

  • janco15

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 9:55 am PT

    sweet, go nintendo

  • urluckyday

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 11:58 am PT

    If the PSP wasn't doing so poorly, this wouldn't look as big, but I'm glad it does...go Nintendo...

  • grafkhun

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 11:54 am PT

    Now with the wii coming out later this year and its ds compality sales may increase even more.
    Also it's sad to see the gc losing support and the gba slowly fading away.
    Plus after the ds' sucess nintendos next handheld had better be really innovative or it may lose its spot as the #1 handheld co.

  • Shingo

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 11:47 am PT

    To think before DS, with the Gamecube releases trickling, some saw doom for Nintendo. I am a nintendo fan. Why? Why not? How many people do you know that don't like the big N compared to the ones that do? They are the ultimate game company. They know how to win.

  • coltACP

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 7:19 am PT

    Lets hope they make damn good use of our money and keep on injecting it back into the gaming world, unlike some companies

    Oh and no matter what anyone says i consider 40 good games a brilliant library of games on a console-thats to all you silly gamecube haters.

  • Domstercool

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 4:12 am PT

    Crazy amount sold. The DS really does have a chance of outselling the original Gameboy and Gameboy Advance at this rate.

  • ACaddict

    Posted Jul 26, 2006 12:21 am PT

    Well, Nintendo roughly translates to "into heavens hands." Pretty good description for a company back on the rise.; )

  • andrewham7

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 7:24 pm PT

    nintendo onws n00bs!!!!!!!!

  • Mytharis

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 5:21 pm PT

    1.1 billion in revenue?

    Send this to nintendo-hatersr who think that Nintendo's going to go out of business.

  • i_love_my_ds

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 4:56 pm PT

    and I own one! (kinda obvious)

  • sigma8

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 4:12 pm PT

    "woooo i helped nintendo ! i justed bought a ds lite liek 2 days ago!"

    Do you own stock in nintendo? When I bought my DS, my priority was to help myself (have fun), not to help nintendo.

  • Treesong

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 1:45 pm PT

    Touch screen FTW. If the PSP would have a touch screen, I would prolly go for the PSP, but right now the DS wins on pure, hands-on fun. Hell, my daughter was playing with her Nintendogs puppy and at one point she was blowing on the screen, actually causing bubbles to blow from a ring on the screen!. Hilarious! Can't wait to get my hands on the DS browser, then I can check my favorite forums anywhere around the house. I bet the touch screen comes in handy again with the zoom-function there.

  • Our_VA

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 1:37 pm PT

    Worldwide speaking, gamecube sold more than Xbox. It's true. And it's only kiddy if you want to play Barbie Rider on it......lol Barbie Rider.

  • ShadowMarth03

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 12:27 pm PT

    Even though you used the same catch ("Step 4: Profit"), I forgive you, because it's still hilarious.

  • Robinvd

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 11:20 am PT

    nice Nintendo dont mess it up.

  • jaefrmbk2k

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 11:03 am PT

    jus checkin' in 2 make sure the haters are still hatin'. i don't care either way, you ladies do make me chuckle

  • Jofulikestofu

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 10:16 am PT

    huzzah for ironman

  • ironman288

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 10:08 am PT

    The game cube did NOT sell more units then Xbox. It did have better games though but they have too much of a rep for making "kiddie games", which apparently is any game with bright colors in it. I personaly play those games a lot and would rather see more games like pikmin then see another stupid fps.

  • faridmon

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 9:04 am PT

    to everyone who is saying Gamecube was a flop, actually it outsold the XBOX and made profit unlike Msoft, and without so many advertising.

  • 02EclipseGT

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 8:54 am PT

    DS is awesome. But I think these guys mess people up with their 80% 100% BS. On how sales grow. Instead of just showing strait numbers compared to the others,in which the DS is number one world wide. But other ways it messes people up. If you grow 200%. But you were 1 % of total gaming, that means your now only 3% of total gaming lol. I think they use the BS more so for micorsoft BS numbers.

  • Shtinky

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 8:48 am PT

    That's what happens when you sell cheap, dated technology, re-package it in a shiney case, then sell it and make profit. Nintendo are smart, you've got to say that, but at the way they're selling these things, it wouldn't hurt them to nudge the price a little bit lower, I especially hope they do so for the Wii.

  • diablusx

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 8:41 am PT

    2 words: ds & black. I want me a DS black and I want it black out of the box. I would even like a dark crimson. That would be sweet if they had a dark crimson for the holiday seasons. Holidays. The color red. It just goes together.

  • rey06

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 6:28 am PT

    only playing MPH, feels to me like i'm playing tons of games. I think games in PSP doesn't have much of a replay value. Well nintendogs, animal crossing and Metroid Prime hunters have. Sweet.

  • Maquis_UK

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 5:52 am PT

    aramitz, you sound like a fool. if you're right and I'm bitter about "shelling out" for GameCube, why have I also got a platinum GC as well as a sweeeeeeet white GC ? not to mention a fairly impressive GC library. the only thing I'm bitter about is that the day doesn't come in 48-hour format. GC rules, ps2 is for chavs and thats the only reason GC was not the financial success they hoped it would be. If I'm bitter, then why do I buy another GC game almost every week? you're talking out yer @#$%.

  • chrisdojo

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 5:41 am PT

    21 mill! nice.

  • LiquidSanek

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 5:37 am PT

    yeah boy!

  • andersalsen

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 5:34 am PT

    Of course DS is a success! I hope Nintendo will focus on more cool, good, not to complex games in the future. That's the games that has made DS so popular.

  • amirkalloe

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 4:36 am PT

    great news and that's really good

  • Dkg

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 4:23 am PT

    enoslives7 - "too bad the gamecube was a trmendous flop"

    you're an idiot.

    Anyways, good news for Nintendo. Hopefully now DS can get some more and better Capcom/Konami suport

  • feralugia

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 4:02 am PT

    go ninten babe

  • JimLad800

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 4:00 am PT

    I don't get why some say Nintendo is making a comeback from '10 years'? of nothing. In my eyes the Gamecube was their only real semi-flop because it lacked online play. Popularity-wise the N64 is usually considered Nintys biggest mistake in regards to price, but imo it was a far far better machine than the PS1 ever was.
    It had strong games coming out right into the new millenium. The Gameboy line has never slowed down either, so the 'fall' of Nintendo is really just a 2 and a half year gap between the GC launch and the DS launch. A gap which was still filled with the likes of Zelda WW, Resi Evil 4, SSBM, Metroid Prime, Pikmin and so on...

    Of course that's all subject to opinion, but that's my take on it anyway.

    But yeah it's still welcome news to hear Nintendo is gaining speed in todays market of push and shove corperate industry invaders.

  • shasam712

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 2:17 am PT

    I am buying a lite sometime in the future. I made the mistake that a few poor folks made of buying a PSP. 21 million DS' in the world is a crazy amount, if everyone who bought a DS buys a Wii then the Wii is going to be just as successful...

  • synapticflow

    Posted Jul 25, 2006 12:43 am PT

    Thanks for the fun, Nintendo!

advertisement

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

Featured Stories

Tags

ds   ds lite   gamecube   gba   handheld   nintendo   nintendo ds   profit   sales   wii

Submit News

Got tips? Send them in!

Recent News

See All News »

Site Blogs