Nintendo Profit Nearly Doubles in 1st Quarter

Video game giant Nintendo Co. said Wednesday it nearly doubled its profit in its fiscal first quarter even though sales declined 2%.

Net income for the quarter ended June 30 was $208 million, or $1.56 a share, up sharply from $105 million, or 79 cents, a year earlier. Sales fell to $755 million from $770 million last year.

Kyoto-based Nintendo attributed the profit boost to increased sales of video games, which have bigger profit margins than its GameBoy Advance hand-held player and its GameCube console. Since coming on the market in 2001, Nintendo has sold nearly 54 million GameBoy Advances and 15 million GameCubes, the company said.

Nintendo said it had $386 million in software revenue during the quarter, up 11% from last year. Hardware sales fell 13% to $363 million.

Nintendo will roll out a dual-screen GameBoy, dubbed DS, during the holiday shopping season. It will be followed next year by Sony Corp.’s PlayStation Portable, the first hand-held device from the company that dominates console games.

“We are still playing a cat-and-mouse game with Sony,” said Nintendo spokesman George Harrison.

Nintendo’s U.S. shares rose 35 cents to $13.70 in over-the-counter trading.