Nintendo hopes to sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles by April

Nintendo expects to sell 5.5 million Wii U consoles by the end of the financial year, the company's latest financial report has revealed.

Previously Nintendo had announced a combined forecast of 10.5 million Wii and Wii U consoles. This is the first time the company has split out the two platforms.

Nintendo also hopes to sell 24 million Wii U games - an attach rate of more than four games per machine.

The amount sounds high, but Nintendo will likely be counting the the copies of Nintendo Land and ZombiU it intends to include in Wii U Premium bundles. Downloadable titles are also presumably included.

The company also expects to have sold 17.5 million 3DS consoles and 70 million 3DS games by the financial year's end in March. Halfway through and Nintendo had managed to shift 5 million 3DS consoles and 19 million games by the end of September, with the year's busiest sales period still to come.

The Wii U will be crucial for Nintendo to achieve its yearly profit forecast, which was reduced earlier today due to weaker than expected 3DS sales.