Nintendo expects to sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles by March 2013

Nintendo has released its financial results for the first of its 2013 fiscal year, and included in the report were estimates for Wii U sales. Although the company lowered its revenue projects for the rest of the year due to "weaker than expected" 3DS sales, Nintendo hopes their new Wii U console will result in strong sales coming out of the gate.

According to the report, Nintendo expects to sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2013. Additionally, the company hopes to sell 24 million Wii U games which figures to be over 4 games per console sold.

Those are some lofty goals indeed, especially considering the down economy and fragile state of the gaming industry. However, if you take into account that the forecasted Wii U software sales are those of packaged titles — like Nintendo Land and ZombiU which are included in the Wii U Deluxe bundles — and downloadable versions, the numbers become more reasonable.

The Wii U is set to release on November 18, 2012 in the U.S. Pre-orders quickly sold out at many retailers, but it will be the console's performance post-launch that will determine if Nintendo can meet its goal.

The company also expects to sell 17.5 million 3DS systems and 70 million 3DS games by the end of the fiscal year as well. So far, Nintendo has managed to sell 5 million 3DS systems and 19 million games in just half a year (end of September results). Heading into the holiday season, the year's busiest sales period, that goal seems quite reasonable.