It's the best of times and the worst of times at Nintendo. Yesterday, the Kyoto, Japan-based gaming company announced record profits of ¥212.5 billion ($2.36 billion) on equally soaring revenues of ¥1.536 trillion ($17.12 billion) for the nine months ended December 31. Unfortunately, with the yen trading particularly strong against the dollar and euro, Nintendo was forced to revise its earnings down 9 percent, with profits off 33 percent from what the publisher previously expected.
However, the company remains well-positioned to capitalize on the future, thanks in large part to a strong back catalog of best-selling games, as well as a number potential hits on the horizon. In a supplementary filing today, Nintendo revealed just how strong its back catalog is, calling out 26 internally developed games for the Wii and DS that have broached the million-unit mark.
Not unexpectedly, Wii Sports and Wii Play led Nintendo's best-seller list. Wii Sports, which is bundled with Nintendo's best-selling console in North America, has now "sold" 40.5 million units worldwide through December 31. Wii Play, which capitalized on its Wii Remote pack-in status to top the US best-seller charts in 2008 with 5.28 million units sold, has now shifted 20.9 million copies globally. Wii Fit and Mario Kart Wii have also both surpassed the 10-million unit mark, with the former shifting 14 million units and the latter running close behind with 13.7 million copies.
The DS has an even larger number of 10-million-unit-plus sellers, numbering seven in total. Nintendogs leads the pack with 21.7 million lifetime units. The best-selling casual game is followed by New Super Mario Bros. (17.6 million), Brain Age (16.8 million), Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (16.5 million), Mario Kart DS (13.8 million), Brain Age 2 (13.2 million), and Animal Crossing: Wild World (10.5 million).