15 million GBAs last year wasn't enough, so Nintendo wants to go for 20 million next year.Nintendo Sets Ambitious Target for GameBoy Advance
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. Ltd. set aggressive sales targets on Wednesday for its hand-held GameBoy Advance machines, aiming to boost sales by one-third in the business year starting on April 1.
The creator of "Pokemon" games has seen sluggish sales of its flagship GameCube consoles while rival Sony Corp's PlayStation 2 dominates the market, but it is finding some consolation in the growing strength of its hand-held models.
Nintendo aims to sell two million of its new GameBoy Advance SPs, which feature rechargeable batteries and a brightly lit screen, in the first six weeks after their February 14 launch, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told a news conference.
It plan to sell 20 million GameBoy Advance machines globally in the next business year, up from its target of 15 million this year.
"This is aggressive, since the consensus forecast for the next year is around 16-17 million," said WestLB analyst Zachary Liggett.
He added that the company would have to release innovative games over the next year linking its GameCube and GameBoy Advance machines if it hoped to boost sales.
Iwata said in an interview last month the GameBoy Advance was likely to surpass this year's sales target after springing to life over the Christmas season with help from a new Pokemon game.
Nintendo's portable games put in a disappointing performance in the first half of the business year.
Competition in hand-held games looks likely to heat up, however, with Finland's Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, set to unveil a new hand-held game machine later on Wednesday.
Nintendo's GameCube has also proved a disappointment and Iwata said last month it was likely to fall more than 10 percent short of this year's shipment target of 10 million units.
Shares in Nintendo, which closed down 0.3 percent at 9,830 yen on Wednesday, have fallen by nearly half over the past year, underperforming the Nikkei average's 10 percent drop.
Topic: Nintendo Increases Game Boy Sales Forecasts (Read 1632 times)
