Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd booked a profit for the April-June quarter, defying market expectations for a loss due to a weaker yen and strong sales of its "amiibo" figurines which are sold as accessories to its popular games. Nintendo swung to a first-quarter operating profit of 1.1 billion yen ($9.3 million) from a loss of 9.5 billion yen a year earlier. That compared with the 6.3 billion yen average loss estimate of 20 analysts, Thomson Reuters data showed.
The firm also cited strong sales of Nintendo 3DS handheld consoles and games such as "Puzzle & Dragons Z + Puzzles & Dragons Super Mario Bros. Edition". It said it sold 1.62 million copies of new shooting game Splatoon for the Wii U console. The results come a little over two weeks since Chief Executive Satoru Iwata died of cancer. Just months earlier, Iwata decided to enter mobile gaming after years of resisting investor calls for such a move.