Nintendo raises profit forecast

Yesterday, Enterbrain (the publisher of influential Japanese gaming mag Weekly Famitsu) revealed that the Wii console had outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 by more than two to one. Today Nintendo has even more good news as it bolsters its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007.

The company has raised the forecast by 20 percent to 120 billion yen (approximately $1 billion), from its previous predictions of 100 billion yen ($839 million). Sales this year are now expected to reach 900 billion yen ($7.5 billion), compared with the previous forecast in October of 740 billion yen ($6.2 billion). Nintendo raised annual dividend forecasts for shareholders to 480 yen ($4) per share, from 400 ($3.4).

Nintendo also raised sales forecasts for all hardware and software products except the Wii, which remained static at 6 million units worldwide by March 2007. Wii software sales were raised to an expected 21 million units from 17 million, Nintendo DS and DS Lite sales went up to 23 million units from 20 million, and DS software titles jumped from 82 million to 100 million units.

Nintendo shares rose 2.4 percent to 29,150 yen ($245) at today's close of the Nikkei, the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The price of Nintendo's stock more than doubled over the course of last year.