4th October 2004, 3:46 PM
Quote:OSAKA (Reuters) - Japanese game maker Nintendo Co. Ltd. raised its full-year net profit forecast by 20 percent on Monday, citing a stronger dollar and solid demand for software titles for its handheld GameBoy Advance machine.
Nintendo, known for games featuring characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, said it now expected group net profit of 84 billion yen ($758.9 million) for the year to March 2005, compared with its May forecast of 70 billion yen.
It also raised its net profit estimate for the April-September first half to 46 billion yen from an original 25 billion yen.
The sharp upward revision was due mainly to a foreign exchange-related gain of 36 billion yen, the company said. It holds about $5 billion worth of dollar-denominated deposits, which it revalues at the end of every accounting period.
The latest revision stems from a change in its assumed exchange rate from 105 yen to the U.S. dollar to 110 yen to the U.S. dollar. The dollar traded at around 110.60 yen on Monday.
Strong demand for its software titles for GameBoy Advance also helped improve its operating profit margin in the first half, more than offsetting slower-than-expected sales of its GameCube consoles, Nintendo said.
``Our GameCube hardware business was slightly hurt by price cuts by our rivals ... but we're considering launching a sales promotion campaign for the peak Christmas shopping season and expect to achieve our full-year sales target,'' Nintendo Senior Managing Director Yoshihiro Mori told a news conference.
Mori declined to comment on whether the company planned another price cut on the GameCube console.
Nintendo in September 2003 slashed prices for the GameCube console to below $100 in the United States to boost flagging sales. In the April-June first quarter it sold 650,000 GameCubes, versus 80,000 units a year ago, as a result.
The company kept its consolidated revenue forecast for the year to March 2005 unchanged at 430 billion yen.
Nintendo last month struck the first blow in what is set to be an all-out war with Sony Corp. for the lucrative handheld game console market, aggressively pricing its new dual-screen model at $149.99 and setting its U.S. launch date for Nov. 21.
In a bid to keep the dominance its GameBoy Advance has given it in the handheld market, Nintendo set the price for the ``DS'' dual-screen console at the bottom end of analysts expectations.
More money = Good
Cube-Europe
Sometimes you get the scorpion.