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Wii propels Nintendo sales to record heights

The phenomenal success of Nintendo's Wii games console has helped the Japanese manufacturer to double its profits during the six months to the end of September. Nintendo said on Thursday that net profit reached 132.42bn yen ($1.2bn) for the first half of its latest fiscal year, up from 54.4bn yen for the same time last year. Group sales more than doubled to 694.8bn yen ($6.1bn) from 298.82bn yen last time around.

Earlier this year, Nintendo reported revenues of 966.5bn yen for its last fiscal year ending 31 March 2007, an increase of 90 per cent over the previous year. That resulted in operating profits of 226bn yen, an increase of 150 per cent on the previous year. Both figures were record highs for Nintendo.

Much of the firm's success is due to the popularity of the Wii console. Latest figures indicate that nearly 4 million Wii units were shipped in the last three months and Nintendo has shipped over 13 million since it was first launched in December 2006, making it the world's best selling next-generation console.

Nintendo doesn't expect sales to slow anytime soon, upping its forecast for the number of Wiis it expects to ship during its current fiscal year from 16.5 million to 17.5 million.

While the Wii is making the headlines, sales of Nintendo's portable DS console are also healthy. The company shipped 13.4 million DS consoles during the first six months of its current trading year, up 32 per cent on the same period a year ago.

Overall, Nintendo has sold 53.6 million DS consoles since launch and it expects to shipped 28 million units in the year ending 31 March 2008.

The latest results have led Nintendo to raise its profit forecast for the year to 275 billion yen ($2.4bn) up from the 245bn it estimated back in July. The company also expects that overall sales will rise 10 per cent to 1.55 trillion yen ($13.6bn).

© 2007 ENN ®

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