Nintendo operating profit doubles in record year

Nintendo has reported that its operating profit for FY 2007-2008 more than doubled on the previous year.

For the fiscal year ended March 31st, operating profit jumped to a record 487.22 billion yen ($4.7 billion; €2.9 billion) from 226.02 billion yen ($2.18 billion; €1.39 billion) in 2006-2007.

However, the Kyoto-based company said net profit rose 47.7 percent to 257.34 billion yen ($2.48 billion; €1.57 billion).

Very strong sales of hardware such as Wii and DS saw revenue increased 73 percent year-on year to 1.67 trillion yen ($16.1 billion).

Forbes reports that the growth in net profit was much slower than operating income because the company incurred foreign exchange losses of 92.3 billion yen due to the rapid appreciation of the Japanese currency.

The financial publication states: ‘A firmer yen hurts Nintendo because it re-evaluates its foreign currency-denominated assets according to the exchange rate at the end of each fiscal year.’