Nintendo today revealed its fiscal results for the nine-month period ended December 31, 2009. Although the company had a very good holiday performance, it wasn't enough to offset the major declines that Nintendo suffered through the first 6 months. Consequently, sales fell 23.1% to 1,182.1 billion yen ($13 billion) while net income fell 9.4% to 192.6 billion yen ($2 billion). Nintendo said the declines "stem from year-on-year decreases in Wii hardware and Nintendo DS software sales, a price cut for Wii hardware, and the significant impact of a stronger yen."
Nintendo sold 17.05 million Wiis in the nine-month period (down more than 3 million), bringing the new life-to-date worldwide installed base to 67.45 million. The DS sold 23.35 million hardware units during the same time, bringing its worldwide installed base to 125.13 million.
In addition to its fiscal numbers, Nintendo revealed how some of its top game releases performed during the nine-month period. We'll list them below.
- Pokemon HeartGold & Pokemon SoulSilver - 3.74 million units (Japan)
- Pokemon Platinum Version - 3.1 million units
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks - 2.45 million units
- New Super Mario Bros. Wii -10.55 million units
- Wii Fit Plus - 10.16 million units
- Wii Sports Resort - 13.58 million units
Overall, DS software sales fell by more than 40 million units for the nine-month period, totaling 121.38 million units. Wii software sales fell by about 7 million units, totaling 156.64 million units. Life-to-date DS software has reached an amazing 688 million units while Wii software has reached 509 million units.
For the fiscal year ending on March 31, Nintendo said it's not altering its previous guidance, which forecasts a net profit of 230 billion yen ($2.6 billion). That would represent the first annual profit decline for Nintendo since the Wii launched.
