TOKYO, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Japan's Nintendo Co (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) raised its 2008/09 profit outlook by 23 percent beyond market expectations on strong sales of its Wii video game console and DS portable player, prompting its shares to leap more than 8 percent.

Nintendo is leading a three-way game console battle against Sony Corp's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Xbox 360. It also hiked Wii and DS sales volume forecasts by 6 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

The Wii, launched in late 2006, continues to enjoy strong global demand thanks to its easy-to-learn motion-sensing controller, low price and innovative titles such as the "Wii Fit" exercise game.

Nintendo said it now expects a group operating profit of 650 billion yen ($5.96 billion) in the year to March, up from its previous forecast of 530 billion yen, helped also by a softer yen.

That sharply beat a 605 billion yen profit projection in a poll of 20 analysts by Reuters Estimates. The company hiked its dividend forecast of 1,680 yen in 2008/09, up from 1,370 yen it had expected in April, and lifted its half-year operating profit by 17 percent to 245 billion yen.

Unlike many other industry sectors, the video game market has been little affected by the economic slowdown, soaring oil prices and sluggish consumer spending.

Nintendo said it now targets to sell 26.5 million units of Wii consoles and 30.5 million DS players this business year.

Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUST9782620080829?rpc=401&

That means: Wii up 1.5 million and DS up 2.5 million on previous forecast.

Going by history - they will raise the forecast one more time.

damn.. I should have bought Nintendo shares during the GC era.

Nintendo is scary. Sooner or later they will have to burn money to make room for the money they are getting. They made more money in 1 year than Sony in an entire generation. What if Nintendo dominated like Sony? What I mean is dominating from the beginning with 70%+ marketshare and all 3rd party support in the world.

Nintendo is going to run out of warehouses to store all those money.

too bad the ntdoy share prices are steadily declining as a result of the economy

damn.. I should have bought Nintendo shares during the GC era

+1 for Naum

Actually, the right time to invest in Nintendo would have been September 2005, when the first sign that they were on to something was given with the unveiling of the Wiimote. Hindsight is 20/20, so you need to have had something to go on.

Also, Nintendo can just build a colossal warehouse to store all the incoming money by using a portion of the cash and coins as paper mache and pillars for a new building :P

Man, I wonder how much money does Nintendo have stashed so far?? (Money saved for the next round of platforms?)

My guess is they're stashing a lot of the cash for just in case scenarios. Possible future hardware flops (Does that even seem likely anymore?) or maybe even to make a big offer to a studio.

The question I have for Nintendo is: "How does Nintendo report it's compounding interest on the money it already holds?"

Is Nintendo actually making that much profit each year off console and software sales alone or are they bolstering their numbers by including compounding interest?

A simple example: If Nintendo has 10 billion in the bank and they are making a minimum of 4% per year off the interest they will earn an extra $400 million just on interest.  How is this money reported?