Nintendo profits leap 34 per cent

Nintendo’s net income has risen 34 per cent for the quarter ending June 30th, driven by the success of Wii hardware and software.

Net income reached 107.2 billion yen ($99 million) for the quarter, up from 80.3 billion yen the previous year, whilst operating profit rose 32 percent to 119.2 billion yen.

Sales were driven by the success of Wii, with hardware sales up 51 per cent to 5.17 million units. Life-to-date Wii has sold 29.72 million units. Nintendo forecasts that Wii sales will rise by 34 per cent this year.

Wii software sales have also risen sharply for the quarter, driven by the success of Wii Fit, Mario Kart, Wii Sports and Wii Play. 40.41 million units of software were sold for the quarter, a rise of 24.42 million from the year before, with Mario Kart Wii shifting 6.42 million units worldwide and Wii Fit selling 3.42 million units.

However, DS sales for the quarter dipped slightly to 6.94 million units, down from 6.98 million units the year before. Although software sales for the period has risen by 2.33 million units to 36.59 million units, with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness/Explorers of Time performing well.

Nintendo has currently sold 77.54 million DS consoles since the machine was launched.