Wii helps Nintendo to quadruple profits

Nintendo's resurgence in the games console market on the back of the popular Wii has started to pay off after the Japanese electronics company reported that its profit had quadrupled over the past three months.

The success of the Wii, as well as the handheld DS device, resulted in Nintendo doubling its sales and quadrupling its profits in the three months to June. It increased its growth forecast for the year by over 40 per cent as a result, heaping more pressure on its arch-rival Sony. Nintendo overtook Sony as Japan's tenth largest company by market value last month.

Nintendo, famous for its Super Mario series of games, suffered earlier this decade as its Gamecube struggled to compete with Sony's PlayStation 2 and the first incarnation of Microsoft's Xbox. Yet it has turned the tables on rivals in the latest generation of consoles, with the Wii appealing to consumers outside the traditional gaming market.

Sony has taken drastic action to halt the slump in its market share, slicing $100 off the price of the PlayStation 3 in North America. The Wii, which retails at around half the cost of the new PlayStation after the price cut, has sold around 9.3m consoles since it launched last year, including nearly 3.5m in the three months to June.