"Buy it!"

Nintendo expects to sell as many as 10.5 million Wii U consoles in the machine's first financial year.

The company provided combined sales targets for Wii and Wii U for the upcoming financial year, targeting combined sales of 10.5m consoles and 70m software units across both machines. It hasn't revealed precisely how many Wii U consoles it hopes to sell, only providing the combined 10.5m Wii and Wii U target.

These estimates are actually extremely conservative: while Wii has faltered of late, it still shifted 9.84m consoles and 102m software units in the past 12 months. Even with the system dropping off, we'd still expect it to sell a few million in the next year.

With Nintendo aiming for a holiday season release for Wii U it's obviously playing it safe with estimates for both consoles. Wii spikes at Christmas time — 5.61m of its 9.84m sales came between October and December — so is Nintendo expecting a softer launch for Wii U than some had expected?