Japanese video game maker Nintendo has raised its sales and profit forecasts for the fourth time for the business year just ended.
Nintendo's strategy to broaden the overall game-playing population paid off with the DS handheld games as well as its new game console, the Wii, proving a major success. Both the DS and Wii focus on intuitive, easy-to-play games.
The company said sales totalled about 966 billion yen ($8.1 billion) for the year ended March 31st, up from its previous forecast of 900 billion yen, and compared with a consensus of 929 billion yen in a poll of analysts.
The Kyoto-based company did not give specific figures for its profits but said they are also likely to have exceeded its prior projections.
In its third earnings revision for the year, announced in January, Nintendo said it expected an operating profit of 185 billion yen and net profit of 120 billion yen, both of which would already be record numbers.
It plans to report actual profit figures when it announces its annual earnings on April 26th.