Japanese video game maker Nintendo announced a global profit of 260 billion yen ($2.18 billion) for the fiscal year 2006 that ended on March 31, 2007. The Nikkei business daily reported today that this is thanks to strong sales of its handheld DS (Lite) system.
The figure is above the 242.4 billion yen ($2.03 billion) profit market estimate by 17 analysts polled by Reuters, and represents a 62% rise in profits year-on-year and would exceed Nintendo’s previous forecast by 24%.
Nintendo, known for game characters like Mario and Pokemon, had forecast DS sales to reach 23 million units in the 2006/07 business year, more than double the expected shipments of Sony’s rival handheld PlayStation Portable for the same period.
In February, Nintendo sold more than twice as many of its new Wii game consoles in Japan and the United States as Sony’s competing PlayStation 3.