It will come as no surprise that Nintendo's latest set of financial results - for the first quarter of 2008 (ending June 30th) - are positive. There is a chance, however, that the company itself might be becoming a little too bullish. Notes in its latest financial report indicate that family-friendly is not enough. The company wants to sell everybody its wares - everybody but the hardcore gamer.

Its latest financial report declares that, "Nintendo's hand-held device, Nintendo DS, and its console gaming system, Wii, have provided the customers with intuitive operation and have expanded the definition of video games".

It doesn't stop there. The company is now bored with just getting families to buy its kit. "Nintendo's strategy", says it quarterly report, "is to accelerate current sales momentum from 'must-have for every family' to 'must-have for everybody' by continuously introducing new and unique software and introducing new services..."

Ambitious, sure. But could the claims of arrogance once levelled at market-leading Sony now be pointed in the direction of Nintendo?

The DS might not be adding to this global domination strategy, however. Global sales of the handheld are actually down on this time last year. 9.64 million DSs were sold in the quarter, which is 0.04m down on the same period last year. Total global lifetime sales of the DS have reached 77.44 million units.

So, DS sales are slightly down for one quarter. The company is still selling software to DS owners, with 36.59 million units of software sold in quarter one - an year-on-year increase of 2.33 million carts.

The Wii - despite longtime criticism from 'the hardcore' that it is a frippery - has not followed the DS's year-on-year sales fall. According to Nintendo is has, "displayed increasing popularity in North America and Europe". This has enabled it to to sell 1.74 million more units than the same period in 2007, with 5.17 million shipped worldwide. This means that 29.62 million Wiis have been shipped in its lifetime.

In talking about the Wii software, however, Nintendo really is not tailoring its message to what Shigeru Miyamoto calls 'core' gamers. All the talk in the report regards sales of Mario Kart Wii, Wii Fit, Wii Sports and Wii Play. With no Metroid or Smash Bros. Brawl mentions, you might be inclined to believe that these 'core gamers' aren't buying.

Total sales of Wii software for the quarter are up a massive 24.42 million to 40.41 million year-on-year. Matchbook maths puts the software attach rate for the quarter at 7.81.

Right now, despite the possibility that Nintendo is getting a little ahead of itself, you can't argue with the figures.
^{Source: Nintendo}