Nintendo says 9-month profit up nearly 25%, lifted by strong titles

TOKYO, Japan – Nintendo said on Thursday, January 31, its net profit jumped nearly 25% for the 9 months to December, riding out the crucial holiday season thanks to blockbuster game titles for its popular Switch console.

The Kyoto-based games giant said its bottom-line profit rose 24.9% to 168.8 billion yen ($1.6 billion) for the April-December period on sales of 997.3 billion yen, up 16.4%.

“During the holiday season, software was a great driver of hardware sales,” the firm said in a statement.

For the year to March, it maintained its optimistic annual targets, expecting a net profit of 165 billion yen, up more than 18% from the previous fiscal year. 

Its annual sales target also remained unchanged at 1.2 trillion yen.

Nintendo’s latest portable console the Switch has become a huge global seller, helped by the release of innovative, family-friendly titles that have wowed critics and gamers alike.

Nintendo shares soared more than 15% in January on expectations that sales were solid for the Christmas shopping season. – Rappler.com