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Nintendo has enjoyed a strong financial year in which the firm returned to profit, reporting new income of 41.8bn yen.
It is a marked improvement on the loss of 23.2bn yen reported for the previous year, as well as the 7bn yen profit reported in 2013. Forecasts given in January predicted a profit of 30bn yen, a figure surpassed by 11.8bn.
The full year ending March 31st, 2015 was also the first fiscal year since 2011 that operating income did not come in as a loss, up to 24.7bn yen from a loss of 46.4bn yen.
Net sales came in at 549.7bn yen, slightly down from 2014’s 571.7bn yen and almost meeting forecasts of 550bn yen.
Nintendo cited strong sales of the New Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL as strong sales drivers, while Wii U steadily grew in sales. 3DS was also home to the best-selling games, with Super Smash Bros racking up 9.94m sales and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire shifting 6.75m units.
Mario Kart 8 was the best-selling Wii U title with 5.11m sales, followed by the console version of Smash Bros at 3.65m units.
Looking forward, Nintendo hopes to achieve net sales of 570bn yen for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2016, as well as an operating income of 50bn yen and profit of 35bn yen.
In addition to previously announced new games for 3DS and Wii U and the continuing expansion of the Amiibo range, Nintendo noted that “a new source of revenue is expected from a gaming application for smart devices”. This will be the first product of the firm’s partnership with DeNA, which the platform holder confirmed will be released this year.
