UPDATE:

Industry analysts are calling out the projections made by the analysts quoted in the Bloomberg story. According to recent tweets , senior research analyst David Gibson believes the forecasts are off and possibly meant 1 billion yen , rather than the reported $1 billion USD.

Analysts are expecting Nintendo to move 3.6 million Wii U consoles this year and rake in $1 billion USD in U.S. amiibo sales, Bloomberg reports.

“Nintendo has picked up good momentum heading into the Christmas season,” said Tomoaki Kawasaki, a Tokyo-based analyst with Iwai Cosmo Securities Co., told Bloomberg. “This time they have a hit lineup. Amiibo represents a new revenue source, and we are watching it very closely.”

Nintendo hoped in its financial results for the second quarter of the financial year that the combination of Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and the Amiibo range will usher in a sales boost come Christmas time. Nintendo’s amiibo were unveiled at E3 2014 and the first wave started rolling out with Smash Bros. for Wii U’s launch on November 21. Wave two and three are expected to launch this month and early next year, respectively.

According to Bloomberg, two analysts recently projected Nintendo's profit estimates to triple to 36.8 billion yen. If true, this would be an improvement after the company saw a ¥23 billion (approximately $193 million USD) operating loss last year.

While Nintendo reported earnings of $1.6 billion USD second quarter of the financial year, it still posted an operating loss. Nintendo also saw its troubled Wii U sales strengthen over the past year by increasing almost 100 percent in year-over-year sales, moving 610,000 units in the second quarter.

Jenna Pitcher is a freelance journalist writing for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter.