Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co. President Satoru Iwata expects demand for Wii and DS game players to hold up this year after sales during the Black Friday shopping week increased more than the company had anticipated.

“I see no negative signs so far,” Iwata, 49, said in an interview yesterday in Kyoto, Japan, where Nintendo is based. “Until the end of this calendar year, sales will be in line with our expectations.”

Iwata’s comments indicate Nintendo is coping better than Sony Corp. and Panasonic Corp. with the global recession that forced the world’s two largest consumer-electronics makers to slash their annual revenue forecasts. Monthly retail sales in the U.S. tumbled the most in almost four decades in November.

“This is good. It confirms that the video-gaming industry is clearly still growing and the Wii is largely the cause of that,” said Jack Neele, who helps oversee $150 billion at Robeco NV in Rotterdam. “Thanks to the bigger installed base, Nintendo will sell more software, which carries higher margins than the consoles.”

Nintendo shares rose 4 percent to 33,650 yen as of the 11 a.m. trading break on the Osaka Securities Exchange. The stock has lost 50 percent in 2008, after more than doubling in each of the past two years.

U.S. sales of the Wii in the week ended Nov. 29 doubled to about 800,000 consoles, Iwata said. The number of portable DS players sold rose 20 percent to around 800,000, he said.

The Wii has outsold the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 almost every month since its release in November 2006. Nintendo’s flagship machine led U.S. console sales in October with 803,000 units, followed by 371,000 for the Xbox 360 and 190,000 for the PS3, according to researcher NPD Group Inc.

Sweeping the Market

Nintendo looks likely to “sweep the market” for Christmas shopping in North America, Merrill Lynch & Co. said in a report yesterday. The Wii is out of stock at many retailers and almost sold out on Internet shopping sites, the brokerage said.

“We have been fortunate to see our products among the top items on consumers’ wish lists,” Iwata said. “With the economy deteriorating, it is very important to stay on the list.”

To meet demand, Nintendo increased production of the Wii by “a bit” in November from 2.4 million units in October, and is doing the same this month, he said.

The DSi, the latest version of the DS introduced in Japan Nov. 1, recorded sales last month in line with Nintendo’s estimate of 500,000, Iwata said. He reiterated the company plans to start selling the player, which comes with camera and music- playing functions, overseas between spring and summer 2009.

Cautious Outlook

Nintendo is cautious about the outlook for the economy and the effect on revenue, Iwata said, declining to specify figures.

Panasonic, the world’s largest consumer-electronics maker, cut its sales outlook for the year to March 31 by about 8 percent and Sony by 2 percent because of sliding demand and the stronger yen. Nintendo kept its projection for revenue of 2 trillion yen.

Osaka-based Panasonic slashed its full-year net income forecast by 90 percent, more than the 38 percent reduction at Sony and the 16 percent cut at Nintendo.

The yen has jumped 36 percent against the euro this year and 20 percent versus the dollar, ranking it as the top performer among 16 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

The impact from the yen is probably “less than for rivals” because Nintendo has been buying a larger proportion of its components in dollars in recent years, the executive said. The company will adjust the share of components purchased in yen, euros and dollars to minimize costs, he said.

Retail Sales Drop

November same-store sales in the U.S. fell 2.7 percent even with discounts for Black Friday, the biggest monthly drop since the International Council of Shopping Centers began tracking data in 1969. The Friday after Thanksgiving is the start of the year- end shopping season and is known as Black Friday as retailers are said to turn a profit for the year on increased sales.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said Dec. 1 that unit sales of the Xbox 360 rose 25 percent in the U.S. over the Black Friday weekend from a year earlier. Sony, based in Tokyo, hasn’t provided sales figures for the period.

Nintendo said in October sales of the Wii, equipped with a motion-sensing controller that can be brandished like a sword or swung like a bat, will climb 48 percent to 27.5 million machines in the year to March 31, more than the 26.5 million estimated in August. It kept the DS sales estimate at 30.5 million.

Sony projects it will sell 16 million PlayStation Portables, 10 million PlayStation 3s, and 9 million of its older PlayStation 2 machine in the year to March 31.

Once in 100 Years

“I think we won’t lose our sales momentum soon, but such a major economic slump is said to come once in 100 years so we can’t be too optimistic,” Iwata said. “It’s too early to say if Wii and DS sales forecasts need to be revised.”

Sales of game titles such as “Mario Kart,” released in 2005 and “Wii Sports,” introduced two years ago, are still “robust,” helping Nintendo’s machines fare better than rival players, Iwata said.

“We have to remain fast in releasing new, innovative products before customers get tired of what they’re playing,” he said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hiroshi Suzuki in Tokyo at Hsuzuki5@bloomberg.net; Junko Hayashi in Tokyo at juhayashi@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 8, 2008 21:28 EST