Nintendo profit jumps 39% on Switch software sales

TOKYO – Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is reporting a 39% rise in profit for the fiscal year through March on healthy software sales for its popular Switch console.

The Kyoto-based company behind the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises on Thursday reported a 194 billion yen ($1.7 billion) annual profit. Annual sales rose 14% to 1.2 trillion yen ($10.7 billion).

Nintendo says popular Switch software included “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” which sold 13.8 million units.

By quarter, Nintendo posted a profit of 25 billion yen ($223 million) for the January-March period, more than five times what it earned the previous year, on 203 billion yen ($1.8) quarterly sales, up 2%.

It expects to ship 18 million Switch devices the current year, up from 17 million for the year just ended.