The retro game download service for Wii has bagged JPY 3.5 billion in less than a year, says an almost bashful Nintendo exec.

Nintendo's General Manager of Marketing, Shinji Hatano, told a Tokyo press gathering yesterday that there have been 7.8 million downloads of Virtual Console games this past year. He told press in attendance that: “We're currently unsure if this is a lot or low. They're not bad figures.”

Actually, Microsoft has claimed over 130 million downloads on Xbox LIVE, but these include freebie dashboard themes, demos and trailers. Microsoft hasn’t released specific download figures for games sold via LIVE.

The modest Mr Hatano was speaking at a conference held to promote a deal between Nintendo and Japanese communications giant NTT. The pair will joint promote Wii Internet capabilities to drive broadband penetration for NTT's fibre-optic service, and software downloads via WiiWare that Nintendo hopes to launch in Nihon next March. Both firms will be taking responsibility for call centres as of today.

According to Reuters, NTT East senior EVP Tetsuo Koga also proclaimed during the conference: "I hope our fibre-optic service becomes as popular as the Wii. I think we have won a powerful ally to hit our target to boost fibre-optic subscribers to 20 million by the year ending March 2011."