Nintendo lifts annual profit forecasts on strong game sales

TOKYO – Nintendo raised its annual net profit forecast on Tuesday after strong sales of its new "Zelda" and "Pikmin" games in the first half of the year.

The Japanese gaming giant said it forecasts net profit of 420 billion yen ($2.8 billion) for the 12 months to the end of March, up from a previous estimate of 340 billion yen. 

"Each title released this fiscal year has sold well, with 'The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom' posting sales of 19.50 million units, and 'Pikmin 4' posting sales of 2.61 million units," Nintendo said in a statement.

"The April release of 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' positively impacted sales of Mario-related titles," the Kyoto-based firm added. 

For the April-September period, net profit jumped 17.7 percent to 271.3 billion yen, with sales climbing 21.2% to 796.2 billion yen.

"Pikmin definitely contributed (to the results) in the first half," Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Toyo Securities, told AFP ahead of the results.

Nintendo released "Pikmin 4", a popular game featuring plant-like creatures called Pikmin first published in 2001, on the Switch in July.

Yasuda added that a "Mario Red" edition of the Switch console and new Switch game "Super Mario Bros Wonder", both released in October, are selling well.

The Switch console is in its seventh year but "the Mario movie led to a significant turnaround", he said. 

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" — a joint project of Universal, Nintendo and Illumination studios — is the second attempt to bring Mario to the big screen, after an ill-fated, live-action movie in 1993.

Yasuda said hit contents such as the Mario movie and new Zelda and Mario games are "continually being produced".