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Nintendo profits up by a third

Nearly 30 million Wii consoles now sold.

Nintendo has published financial results for the three months ending June 30th, confirming everyone else in the world is in the wrong business.

Net profits rose to JPY 107.2 billion (USD 99 million), up from JPY 80.3 billion the previous year.

The number of Wii consoles sold worldwide was 5.17 million - bringing lifetime sales up to 29.62 million.

Mario Kart Wii proved popular during the quarter with 6.42 million copies sold, while the figure for Wii Fit was 3.42 million. Total Wii software sales stood at 40.41 million units - up from 24.2 million units last year.

In total 36.59 million DS games were sold, with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness/Time proving most popular.

Nintendo's profits are likely to keep rising as manufacturing issues with the Wii and peripherals such as the Balance Board continue to be resolved. However, other companies are still struggling to meet the demand from Nintendo executives for hats made of diamonds, ruby-encrusted toothbrushes and solid gold helicopters.