Saturo Iwata, the global boss of Nintendo, has stated  to inverstors that he believes the firm’s twin-screened DS handheld could go on to sell over 150 million units worldwide.

”I don't think it is appropriate to conclude that DS is reaching its final stages on the market,” Iwata stated, according to Gamasutra.

He added that to date the machine has sold 25.1m units in Japan, 27.6m units in US and 31.4m in Europe, bringing life time sales to date to 84.1m.

Iwata also praised the company’s Wii console, stating: “With new customers acquired by the gaming population expansion efforts, it is not impossible for Wii's total sales to exceed the final install base of PS2. Wii still has much more room for expansion.”

There were also optimistic words about the European market, with Iwata claiming: “The fact is, the current European game market potential is smaller than that of the US. This is because the ratio of people who enjoy video game in Europe is still less than those in the U.S. and in Japan. However, since the European market has grown rapidly in the last two years, and portable game market has come close to the level of the US, the situation is changing.”