Nintendo Co. said Thursday its net profit for April to June soared to 106.48 billion yen ($1 billion), a 6.4-fold rise from a year earlier, as the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent stay-home requests spurred demand for its Switch console and software.

The videogame maker booked an operating profit of 144.74 billion yen for the fiscal first quarter, a 5.3-fold increase, as sales more than doubled to 358.11 billion yen.

The increase in game titles helped lift sales of the Switch, Nintendo said, adding that titles released in previous fiscal years have also continued to sell well, with life simulation game "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" on top of the list.

But the Kyoto-based company retained its full-year guidance, expecting net profit to drop 22.7 percent from the previous year to 200 billion yen and operating profit to slide 14.9 percent to 300 billion yen on sales of 1.2 trillion yen, down 8.3 percent.

==Kyodo

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