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Nintendo's Wii U building momentum for holidays

Nintendo Co. is counting on new games to boost sales of its Wii U and the latest results suggest that strategy is breathing life back into the console.

Sales of the Wii U more than doubled to 1.12 million units in the six months ended September from a year earlier, the Kyoto, Japan-based company reported today. The console posted consecutive quarterly increases for the first time since its debut two years ago.

President Satoru Iwata maintained his full-year forecasts as the company prepares for the crucial holiday shopping season with more new titles, the release of its Amiibo figurines that interact with games and an updated 3DS handheld player. Nintendo had been struggling to build momentum for the Wii U amid a dearth of software as consumers shifted to games on smartphones and Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 4.

"Consoles sell when the contents are there to attract users and Mario Kart 8 did just that," Tomoaki Kawasaki, a Tokyo-based analyst with Iwai Cosmo Securities Co., said by telephone. "Amiibo's entry in the year-end lineup is one place to watch as it may help broaden the user base."

Sales of software for the Wii U jumped 49 percent to 9.4 million units in the first half, helped by the release of Mario Kart 8 title in May, Nintendo said. 3DS posted a 15 percent drop to 23.3 million units as sales of the hardware slumped 46 percent to 2.09 million.

The company maintained its full-year projection to sell 3.6 million Wii U consoles and 12 million 3DS handhelds.

Quarterly Profit

Net income in the three months ended Sept. 30 was 24.2 billion yen ($224 million), compared with a loss of 8 billion yen a year earlier, according to figures derived from first-half results reported today. Nintendo booked a 15.5 billion yen gain in the first half from the weaker Japanese currency.

By next year, the company plans to introduce several new titles including Splatoon, which lets two teams take on roles as squids that morph into people and shoot different-colored ink in timed matches. It will release a new Zelda game, a title called Xenoblade Chronicles X and a Mario racing game that lets users make their own courses.

The company is also entering the multibillion-dollar, collectible-toy market with its Amiibo figurines, which are similar to Activision Blizzard Inc.'s Skylanders. Players can enter a Nintendo character into a game through the Wii U's GamePad tablet.

"The pace of sales changed significantly after the global launch of Mario Kart 8 in May," Iwata said in a briefing in Osaka today. "For the year-end we will have Super Smash Bros. as well as Mario Kart 8 multiplayer titles, a first for the holiday season."

--With assistance from Takashi Amano in Tokyo and Robert Fenner in Melbourne.

To contact the reporters on this story: Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo at palpeyevbloomberg.net; Grace Huang in Tokyo at xhuang66bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Tighe at mtighe4bloomberg.net Suresh Seshadri, Subramaniam Sharma

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