As evidenced by NPD data in recent months, Wii sales are no longer flying high. Today, Nintendo released its fiscal results for the company's first quarter ended on June 30, and sales of the Wii were down more than half from 5.17 million to 2.23 million. Overall, net income for the quarter fell 60.6% to ¥42.3 billion ($445.4 million) from ¥107.3 billion, while sales slipped 40.1% to ¥253.5 billion.

The company said the poorer performance was largely due to a tough comparison with its first half of 2008 and the value of the yen against the dollar. "While the company reported the third highest sales and profits in its history for this period, sales and profits were down compared to the same three-month period in 2008, largely due to two factors. First, the valuation of the yen in 2009 is higher compared to the dollar and euro than it was in 2008. Second, in 2008 Nintendo front-loaded the first half of the year with top-selling games like Super Smash

Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit, while in 2009 major Nintendo game launches fall in the second half of the calendar year. Accordingly, Nintendo made no revisions to its half and full fiscal year financial forecasts," Nintendo said in a statement.

For the fiscal year ending next March, Nintendo still expects to sell 26 million Wii units worldwide along with 220 million pieces of Wii software. For the DS hardware, the company expects to sell 30 million units worldwide with 180 million software units. Sales for the full year are forecast to total ¥1.8 trillion (down 2.1%) with net income totaling ¥300 billion (up 7.5%).
Analyst Michael Pachter has told us previously that Nintendo would have to cut the price on Wii in order to meet its fiscal targets, and it seems other analysts are in agreement. "The slump in sales of Wii stood out," said Hiroshi Kamide, an analyst at KBC Securities Japan. "The Wii's popularity depends on software. As it's been (three) years since its launch, a price cut may be an option."

To date, Nintendo has sold 52.62 million Wii units globally and 384.09 million Wii software units. Nintendo DS hardware has reached 107.75 million units worldwide (and of those, Nintendo DSi hardware accounts for 6.68 million), while DS software stands at 596 million units.