Advertisement

Nintendo expects to double 3DS sales by this time next year

Call it ambitious (if you're feeling nice), or potentially bananas (if you're feeling realistic), but no matter what you call it, Nintendo's clearly not joking around with its hardware sales forecast. The company let loose a variety of predictions for the current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2013) this week, which predicts movement of 18.5 million 3DS units into consumers' backpacks and purses worldwide.

That's not a huge increase from the console's first fiscal year (April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012), which saw 17.13 million 3DS units sold. And with big hitters like New Super Mario Bros. 2 and Animal Crossing on the way, it seems likely that Nintendo will surpass those numbers and get to "adjust" their forecast upwards come investor call time. "Ooops, we made way more money than we expected," Nintendo head Satoru Iwata might tell investors, with a coy smile. "Please forget about last year's major financial issues." At least that's how we picture these things going.