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 Nintendo ends the fiscal year with sales way ahead of analysts expectations. $300 million ahead of analyst expectations, closing their fiscal year with $8.1 billion in revenue. CNNMoney.com reports...TOKYO (Reuters) -- Japanese video game maker Nintendo raised its just-ended fiscal year sales and profit forecasts for the fourth time Thursday, thanks to robust demand for its DS handheld games, sending its shares higher. Nintendo's strategy to broaden the overall game-playing population paid off handsomely with the DS as well as its new game console, the Wii, proving a smashing success. Both the DS and Wii focus on intuitive, easy-to-play games. The Wii's success helped Nintendo exceed sales expectations for the year ended March 31. The company said sales totaled about ¥966 billion ($8.1 billion) for the year ended March 31, up from its previous forecast of ¥900 billion ($7.5 billion), and compared with a consensus of ¥929 billion ($7.8 billion) in a poll of 17 analysts by Reuters Estimates. The Kyoto-based company, known for such game characters as Mario and Pokemon, 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 and net profit of ¥120 billion, both of which would already be record numbers. It plans to report actual profit figures when it announces its annual earnings on April 26. "Merchandise does not move in the January-March quarter - that is the norm in this industry," Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said. "But ours somehow did." Nintendo enjoyed strong demand for its long-running in-house software such as "Nintendogs" from new DS users globally. In "Nintendogs," players can adopt a dog, give it a name, walk it, talk to it and teach it tricks to win an obedience contest, spending only a few minutes at a time. Eight of the 10 best-selling game software titles in Japan were meant for the DS in the past business year, including "New Super Mario Bros.," according to video game magazine publisher Enterbrain. Winner in initial round In January, Nintendo forecast DS sales of 23 million units in the 2006-07 business year, more than doubling expected shipments of Sony's rival handheld gear, PlayStation Portable (PSP), for the same period, and DS software sales of 100 million. Actual DS hardware and software sales have likely exceeded these targets in the year ended in March, Minagawa said. Sony drops PSP price in battle with Nintendo In order to better compete with the DS, Sony cut the price of the PSP in North America by 15 percent or $30 to about $170 earlier this week. The DS retails for about $150. Aiming to repeat its success of the DS in the console market, Nintendo launched the Wii in November. The device features a motion-sensitive controller that allows users to direct on-screen play by swinging it like a tennis racket or wielding it like a sword, opening a new avenue of game playing. Nintendo sold more than twice as many Wii consoles in Japan and the United States in February as Sony's competing PlayStation 3. Minagawa said Nintendo has likely achieved its target to sell 6 million Wii consoles by March. "It is clear the Wii is the initial winner in the console battle, but nobody knows how long things stay that way," said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments. "I would like to wait and see what kind of strategy - pricing strategy in particular - Sony will take in its effort to catch up." The basic version of the PS3 costs twice as much as the Wii. Nintendo also said Thursday it now expects a foreign exchange-related profit of 20 billion yen for the 2006-07 business year, rather than its previous forecast of a 10 billion yen loss. Following the midday announcement, shares in Nintendo erased a morning loss and closed up 2.1 percent at ¥34,350, outperforming the Nikkei average, which lost 0.3 percent. The stock has nearly doubled over the last 12 months, while the Nikkei remained virtually flat. Nintendo rival Microsoft recently announced that it will begin selling a new version of its Xbox 360 console that transmits high-definition video and comes with a larger hard drive. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           
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