Nintendo Swings to Profit in April-June, Sales Up 21 Percent

Japanese video game giant Nintendo said Wednesday it swung to a $67 million (roughly Rs. 427 crores) net profit in the three months to June, owing to a jump in console sales and a weaker yen.

The company, whose chief executive Satoru Iwata died of cancer at the age of 55 this month, said its JPY 8.28 billion net profit reversed a loss of JPY 9.92 billion a year earlier.

It said it was still on track to book a net profit of JPY 35 billion on sales of JPY 570 billion in the year to March 2016.

Revenue in the latest quarter jumped 21 percent to JPY 90.22 billion, as the company's new line-up of 3DS portable consoles "continued to expand their sales", it said in a statement.

At the operating level Nintendo returned to a JPY 1.15 billion profit from a JPY 9.47 billion loss a year earlier.

The loss of Iwata has raised questions about Nintendo's future as it faces stiff competition from Sony and Microsoft in console sales, and as the trio battle the trend toward cheap or sometimes free downloadable games for smartphones and other mobile devices.

Nintendo's deceased chief had argued that venturing into the overpopulated world of smartphones and tablets risked hollowing out the core business and cannibalising the hard-fought value of their game creations.

Iwata later acknowledged Nintendo had little choice but to move into new areas.

"The world is changing, so any company that is not coping with the change will fall into decline," he said.