Nintendo's six-month sales, profit double

A month after it first took the honor, Nintendo today was once again named the second-most valuable corporation in Japan. Like its rival Sony, the Kyoto-based game giant has also reported its results for the six months ending September 30, which saw both its revenues and profits double.

Sales for the half-year totaled ¥694.80 billion ($6.10 billion), a 132 percent increase over the revenue brought in during the same stretch of time in 2006. Nintendo's net profits grew even faster: The company took home ¥132.42 billion ($1.16 billion) for the half-year, almost 144 percent more than it earned in the comparable period last year. Such huge percentage increases in the game maker's financial fortunes are likely done with for now, given that future results will be compared against the company's strong performance in the wake of the Wii launch.

Nintendo attributed its success to a strong lineup of DS games such as Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (6.95 million sold for the half-year) and the Brain Age series (5.19 million sold in six months). Hardware-wise, the company sold 13.35 million DS systems for the half-year, which brought the lifetime installed base up to 53.64 million worldwide.

The Wii also played a big part in the company's success. The company sold 7.33 million Wii systems in the first half of its fiscal year, which brought the worldwide installed base up to nearly 13.17 million. Mario Party 8 was the only Wii game for which sales figures were provided (2.89 million), but Wii Sports (which is sold separately from the system in some countries) and Wii Play (which comes bundled with a Wii Remote) were said to enjoy "favorable sales."

For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2008, Nintendo is expecting to rack up sales of ¥1.55 trillion ($13.61 billion), 60 percent higher than the previous year, with net income up almost 58 percent to ¥275 billion ($2.41 billion).