Nintendo sees little profit in Wii

Nintendo's Wii may have won all the plaudits at this year's E3, but that doesn't mean its success is going to be vital to Nintendo's profit margins.

How do we know? Well, the big N admitted as much in a briefing over in Tokyo today, with company president Satoru Iwata saying that even if the company meets its sales targets, the Wii will add little to Nintendo's considerable cash stash and profitability - in the short term at least.

Iwata said: "Although I am not going to give a specific sales target for the Wii console, we promise here to achieve sales sharply above those that we have achieved with our Gamecube console."

But that's not necessarily bad news, as it means Nintendo isn't depending on the Wii's success in quite the same way as Sony is really counting on the PlayStation 3 to contribute to the company's balance books.

Although Iwata wouldn't name a specific figure, Nintendo is aiming to sell around six million Wii's up to the end of the next financial year in March 2007, with around 17 million pieces of software attaching alongside the console.

However, the company also said it had ramped up production of the ultra profitable DS handheld Lite, to around 2.2 million units a month since May, undoubtedly to meet the huge demand which will accompany US and European Lite launches.

Via CVG