Newly announced figures show Nintendo in a certain amount of financial hot water.

Revenues fell to ¥548.06 billion for the six months ending September 30th 2009, that's down from ¥836.88 billion this time last year. During the same period profits fell by 59%, from ¥252.18 billion in 2008 to ¥104.36 billion. We don’t propose to work out the currency conversions or the bewildering number of zeroes involved, but it sounds painful nonetheless.

The upshot of these results is a significant write-down in sales going forward. Nintendo now expects to shift 20 million Wiis by the end of the financial year, instead of the previously estimated 26 million. Likewise the Wii software sales forecast has been trimmed from 220 million to 180 million.

DS business is not quite so badly hit. Hardware targets remain unaltered at 30 million units, although Nintendo has revised software sales from 180 million to a more attainable (but still staggering) 150 million.

Fiscal grief aside, Nintendo has also posted some impressive sales stats, as if to remind us all just how well the Wii and DS have done so far. 5.75 million Wiis were sold during the six month reporting period, which brings the lifetime figure to over 56 million. At the same time 76 million pieces of Wii software have been shifted in the first half of 09, and that contributes much to the life-to-date total of 429.23 million.

But that’s nothing compared to the DS, which, thanks to the 11.7 million consoles sold during the last six months, has now installed over 113 million units worldwide. Games-wise it’s even better, with 71 million sold this year and a truly stunning lifetime total of 638 million.

So, while Nintendo’s garden might not be quite so rosy at the moment, the above figures show that things are perhaps not as grim as they seem. Put more simply, there an awful lot of Nintendo consoles out there and some blockbusting software titles still in prospect. No doubt the newly-announced DSi LL, the rumoured Hi-Definition Wii and the potentially paradigm-redefining ‘Vitality Sensor’ technology will help put things back on track too. Fingers crossed anyway...