Wii Helps Nintendo Year-End Profits Soar

A man carrying bags containing a Nintendo Wii game console leaves the Yurakucho shop of electronics retailer Bic Camera in this Dec. 2, 2006 file photo. Booming year-end sales of the wand-wielding Wii game console sent profit at Nintendo soaring 43 percent for the nine months ended December, the Japanese manufacturer of Pokemon and Super Mario games said Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File) (Shizuo Kambayashi - AP)

But that hasn't dented the company's profits or stopped the Wii from selling well.

A voluntary exchange for a thicker strap for the controller announced in December will cost slightly more than 1 billion yen ($8 million; euro6 million), including costs extending beyond the period covered in Thursday's report, Minagawa said.

Nintendo said it was also marking robust sales with its Nintendo DS portable, totaling 18.88 million units sold worldwide in the first three quarters _ the fastest rising game platform ever in the Japan market. The machine is also selling briskly overseas, it said.

In-house game software sales, which are crucial for boosting profitability for game companies, also did well for Nintendo, it said, such as "New Super Mario Bros.," "Brain Age" and "Nintendogs" for DS, and "The Legend Zelda: Twilight Princess," for Wii.

Etsuko Tamura, analyst for Mizuho Investors Securities in Tokyo, said Nintendo was likely to do well through next fiscal year because of a planned strong lineup of game software, such as "Dragon Quest" for DS.

"There's no bad news for Nintendo," she said, shrugging off some doubts that consumers may already be starting to tire of the Wii, partly because of its simplicity. "Nintendo will come up with new kinds of games for Wii."

Easy-to-play games to attract the elderly and other newcomers are likely in the works, including dieting games, said Tamura.

Nintendo also got a boost from the weaker yen, which inflates overseas earnings when repatriated. During the nine months, Nintendo racked up a 26 billion yen ($216 million) foreign exchange gain. The company kept its full-year forecast unchanged at 120 billion yen ($996 million) profit, despite heftier profits for the nine-month period partly because of the uncertainty of currency fluctuations, on 900 billion yen ($7.5 billion) sales.

Nintendo shares, which have more than doubled over the last year, closed up 1.5 percent in Tokyo at 33,500 yen ($278) shortly before earnings were announced.