$711 Million. That's what Nintendo expects to make this year. This is up from the $556 million projected earlier this year.

So why the jump? Well, aside from the extraordinarily good DS sales, Nintendo expects to sell 6 million Wii consoles and 17 million Wii games this financial year which ends March 2007.

Imagine that - 6 million Wii consoles by next spring. Not too shabby.

So why is Nintendo doing so well when others seem to be struggling? I think i'ts pretty simple.

They've tapped into a niche that others haven't recognized. While Sony has the PSP, it is more of a high end portable gaming unit, while the DS fits into a lower price point, making it more accessible to most users. M$ of course doesn't have a handheld console (yet) and there is really no one else to speak of.

On the console side of things, the Wii's biggest competition will come from the Xbox. The PS3 will be late and expensive.

So this is why Nintendo can confidently make statements like this: Because it has a winning team - between the DS and the Wii.