Related Articles
Top Stories
May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
Tokyo - Nintendo said on Thursday profits more than doubled in the six months to September 30 on the soaring success of its hit Wii and Nintendo DS game consoles.
The Japanese manufacturer of Pokemon and Super Mario games said its group net profit surged to ¥132.42bn in its fiscal first half from ¥54.35bn a year earlier.
Group sales also more than doubled to ¥694.80bn from ¥298.82bn, with 78% of sales booked overseas.
The strong results spurred Nintendo to raise its full year profit forecast for the year ending in March to ¥275bn, up from the ¥245bn it forecast in July. Sales are forecast to rise 10% to 1.55 trillion.
The earnings underline the Kyoto-based company's success in a three-way battle of video game consoles against Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
With its wandlike remote control for fishing, golfing, tennis and other video games, Nintendo's Wii console has won over fans from young children to elderly rehab patients.
Wii accessories
Nintendo has announced a further lineup of Wii accessories: a floor pad for exercise and dancing, a steering wheel for driving games and a gun-shaped "zapper" for shooting.
The company shipped about 3.9m Wii units around the world in the last three months, according to numbers announced on Thursday, bringing the total since its launch last year to 13.2m units - 5.5m in North America, 3.7m in Japan and 4.0m elsewhere.
Nintendo said it expects to sell a total of 17.5m Wiis during the fiscal year.
Nintendo's impressive comeback in recent years is also due to its lineup of low-cost, casual software - the sort of games anyone of any age can quickly learn to play.
Titles like "Nintendogs", "Brain Age" and "Nintendo Cooking" have propelled sales of the portable DS, making it the most popular of the current generation of consoles.
Nintendo has already sold 53.6m DS consoles, and sales are still strong. Unit sales in the last six months - 13.35m units - rose 32% from the same period last year. The company said it expected to sell 28m DS units in the year ending March.
Nintendo shares, one of the best performers among major Japanese listings, added 1.30% to ¥69 800 before earnings were announced.
- AP