Nintendo posts fivefold profit rise

Surging sales of Nintendo Co.’s Wii and DS video games lifted the company’s quarterly profit fivefold, prompting the Japanese game maker to raise its annual earnings forecast 40%.

Nintendo posted net income of 80.25 billion yen ($667 million) for the April-June period, up from 15.55 billion yen a year earlier.

Sales more than doubled to 340.44 billion yen from 130.91 billion yen the previous year, powered by brisk sales of Nintendo’s hand-held DS machine and its wand-wielding Wii console.

The Kyoto-based maker of “Pokemon” and “Super Mario” games raised its annual profit forecast to 245 billion yen from the 175 billion yen it forecast in April.