Nintendo smiling over record sales

With Mario Kart Wii reaching the top of the UK sales charts in its first week of release, the Wii and DS continuing to rule the hardware sales charts, and a multimillion-selling US debut for Super Smash Bros Brawl, Nintendo has had plenty of good financial news lately.

Further evidence of that arrived today, as the company reported "record results in both net sales and income" for its most recent financial year. In a separate statement, the company also confirmed the release of Super Smash Bros Brawl for Europe on 27 June 2008.

Nintendo says it wants to be the games company that "puts smiles on the faces of people of all ages and genders", and following its financial statement today, there are likely grins all around at the Mario Factory headquarters. The company has reported that net sales for the year ending 31 March 2008, were ¥1.672trn (£8bn), up 73 per cent on the previous year. This resulted in a net income (or profit) of ¥257bn for its 2008 fiscal year ended 31 March, up 47 per cent on the previous year.

Both hardware and software have served up results that are bound to please Nintendo's accountants. The Wii console sold 18.61 million units worldwide during the last fiscal year, which amounts to 24.5 million units since its release. In its forecasts for April 2008 to March 2009, Nintendo says it will sell 25 million further Wii consoles worldwide.

Wii software sales were bolstered by the success of Wii Fit in Japan, where the fitness training programme shifted 1.85 million copies. Super Smash Bros Brawl sold 4.85 million units in the US and Japan, with Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Party 8 also highlighted as major successes. Nintendo's statement says that the number of lifetime million-selling titles for the Wii went up from five to 26 during the fiscal year. The company will also roll out WiiWare in the US on 12 May, with a European launch following on 20 May.

The Nintendo DS handheld was also crucial to the company's financial success. More than 30 million units were sold worldwide in the past year, taking the lifetime number over 70 million. Fifty-seven titles are now million-sellers, up from 30 the previous year. Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, the seemingly omnipresent Brain Training/Brain Age titles and Mario Party DS were flagged up as key successes for the format.