US news source Bloomberg reports that Nintendo of America’s senior vice president of marketing and communications George Harrison has stated that the company intends to sell 35 million Wii consoles within the next four years.

Wii has been a phenomenal success since its launch late last year. Were it to reach this number of sales in the territory, it would place the machine within touching distance of PS2’s record-breaking North American installed user base of 38 million.

"Demand is much greater than we anticipated,'' Harrison stated. "A year ago no one thought we would be in this position."

However, Japanese analysts have warned that Nintendo is setting its sights incredibly high.

"The 35 million target is a bit too optimistic for now as it seems the Wii is targeting light gamers, but the US market has a lot of hardcore game players,'' Tokyo’s Mizuho Investors Securities analyst Etsuko Tamura stated. "It's too early to decide whether the Wii will be the winner among game consoles."

To date Nintendo has sold 2.5 million Wii’s in North America. By contrast, Sony has sold 1.3 million PS3’s and Microsoft Xbox 360, which launched a year earlier than the other two machines, has sold 5.4 million.