Robust holiday sales of Wii and DS game machines helped Japan's Nintendo more than double its quarterly operating profit and raise its outlook.
Its Wii console, which features a motion-sensing controller, and the double-screened DS handheld game helped the company attract a wide range of new users, including women and the elderly.
Wii sales topped Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 in the United States and Japan last year.
Operating profit at Nintendo came to 205.3 billion yen ($1.93 billion) in October-December, up from 100.5 billion yen a year earlier, according to Reuters. Nintendo only gave results for the nine months to December.
Net profit in October-December rose 63 per cent from the same period a year earlier to 126.5 billion yen on sales of 621.6 billion yen, up 50 per cent.
Nintendo said it now expects its operating profit to total a record 460 billion yen for the full year to March 31st, up almost 10 per cent from a previous forecast of 420 billion yen and just above the consensus of 456.5 billion yen in a poll of 21 analysts by Reuters Estimates.
Shares in Nintendo more than doubled in value last year on strong sales of its game machines and software titles, helping the company to pass Sony and Honda in market value.