Nintendo has been able to post year-on-year growth in profit thus far thanks to the Wii, but even the company itself expects the outlook to be less rosy this year now that sales for its console have dipped considerably.  The company has slashed its forecasted profit for the fiscal year ending March 2010 from ¥300 billion ($3.30 billion) to ¥230 billion ($2.53 billion USD).

While profitability is still expected, Nintendo was forced to temper its full-year estimate in the face of slowing demand for the Wii.  The console saw its year-on-year sales in North America drop by 52 percent during the six month period ending September 2009, from 10 million units last year to 5.75 million. Wii software sales also took a dive, falling from 81.4 million to 76.2 million units. The DS similarly faced year-on-year decline during the last six months. Hardware sales fell from 13.7 million to 11.7 million units, while software sales dropped from 85 million to 71.1 million units.

Nintendo still posted profits of ¥69.5 billion ($772 million USD) for the March to September 2009 reporting period, but this represents a 52 percent drop from the ¥144.8 billion ($1.6 billion USD) earned during the same timeframe last year.  Declining Wii hardware and software sales contributed to a 34.5 percent year-on-year fall in revenue from ¥836.9 billion ($9.22 billion USD) to ¥548.1 billion ($6 billion USD).

The company acknowledged that a lack of killer Wii apps this year may well have cooled enthusiasm on the Wii, though it also highlighted side effects stemming from the Wii price cut as well as a stronger yen affecting its international trade.

Nintendo confirmed that lifetime sales for the Wii have reached 56.14 million units worldwide, while DS sales are now at 113.48 million, 10.1 million of which were for the DSi model.