Cheap yen, better sales lift Nintendo to quarterly profit in reversal from red ink last year

Nintendo posted an 8.28 billion yen ($67 million) profit for the fiscal first quarter, helped by better sales and a cheap yen that boosted overseas earnings.

Nintendo Co., the Japanese video-game maker of the Super Mario and Pokemon franchises, said Wednesday that April-June sales rose 20 percent to 90.2 billion yen ($729 million).

Speculation is growing about the future direction of the Kyoto-based company after its president Satoru Iwata died earlier this month. No successor has been announced.

Nintendo had reported a 9.9 billion yen loss for the first quarter of the previous fiscal year.

The manufacturer of the Wii U home console left its annual profit forecast unchanged at 35 billion yen ($283 million).