Japanese computer games giant Nintendo Co said first-half net profit grew 28% year-over-year to 31.60 billion yen ($260.3m), while pre-tax profit in the half, which ended September 30, rose 29% from last year to 63.04 billion yen ($519.3m). The company managed the growth in profits even as overall sales fell 1.4% to 200.22 billion yen ($1.65bn). Exports remained essentially flat at 151.38 billion yen. The company told the Dow Jones news service in Japan that pre-tax profit was boosted by the weak yen while sales were hurt by price cuts for the Nintendo 64 game machine – which also contributed to a 5.2% drop in operating profit to 45.75 billion yen ($376.9m). For the full year, Nintendo is now predicting sales of 460 billion yen ($3.79bn), up from 431.81 billion last year. Net profit is expected to be 74 billion yen ($609.6m), up from 66.36 billion, and pretax profit should come in at 129 billion yen ($1.06bn), against 125.45 billion. Concerns remain about continued weakness in the Japanese economy and the prospect of problems in the US and Europe. Figures were converted at a rate of 121.4 yen to the dollar.
