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    Nintendo’s profit soars as pandemic has people playing games

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1142 Views
    A shopper passes by an ad for Super Mario of Nintendo at an electronics store in Tokyo, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. Nintendo, the Japanese company behind Super Mario and Pokemon video games, reported Thursday that its fiscal first half profit more than tripled as passed time while stuck at home during the pandemic playing games. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

    By Yuri Kageyama, Business Writer

    TOKYO (AP) --

    Nintendo, the Japanese company behind Super Mario and Pokemon video games, reported Thursday that its fiscal first half profit more than tripled as passed time while stuck at home during the pandemic playing games. 

    Kyoto-based Nintendo Co.'s profit for the six months through September soared to 213 billion yen ($2 billion), up from 62 billion yen a year ago. Six-month sales soared to 769 billion yen ($7.4 billion) from 444 billion yen. 

    Nintendo said more than 5 million units of "Super Mario 3D All-Stars" game software for the Nintendo Switch were sold during the period, and nearly 3 million units of "Paper Mario: The Origami King" were sold. 

    Earlier releases also continued to sell briskly, including "Animal Crossing: New Horizons," which has now sold a cumulative 26 million units globally, according to Nintendo. 

    Nintendo's online downloads and mobile sales also did well, it said.

    Nintendo said it expects the positive results to continue. The latest in its other hit game lineup, such as "Pikmin 3 Deluxe," will go on sale this year, it said.

    Nintendo raised its full year profit forecast through March to 300 billion yen ($2.9 billion), up from an earlier projection of a 200 billion yen ($1.9 billion) profit. The latest forecast, if realized, would mark a 16% improvement from 259 billion yen in profit recorded in the previous fiscal year. 

    Although rising COVID-19 cases have hurt large chunks of the global economy, including Japan's, some sectors, such as online retailing and at-home entertainment, are booming. 
     

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    Netflix’s “Missing You” lands in time for New Year binge watch

    Friday, December 27, 2024
    Ashley Walters, left, and Rosalind Eleazar pose for photographers at a photo call for the television series "Missing You," Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in London. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

    It's Netflix's resolution every new year to give viewers a headscratcher in January.

    Since 2020, the streamer has released a U.K. miniseries based on thriller book by Harlan Coben over the holidays. It seems to have paid off: "Fool Me Once," starring Michelle Keegan, Adeel Akhtar and Joanna Lumley, launched this past January and became what Netflix says was one of their most watched shows of the year, amassing 108 million views.

    2025's seasonal suspense series is "Missing You," based on Coben's 2014 New York Times bestseller. It stars Rosalind Eleazar ("Slow Horses") as Detective Inspector Kat Donovan, a police officer who specializes in finding missing people — apart from the fiance that vanished 11 years earlier.

    "They know Jan. 1 is the sweet spot for them," says actor Richard Armitage, who has appeared in each winter Coben adaptation, which relocates the stories from the books' America to the north of England. "People have ownership over the show now, so like, 'I want my Harlan Coben show on New Year's Day. Give me my Harlan Coben fix.'"

    "It's perfect timing for the release, to be honest," says co-star Ashley Walters. "Most people are going to be hung over or, you know, just not have anything to do with the day."

    The show opens with the shock of Donovan's ex-fiance (Walters) popping up on a dating app, over a decade after she came home one day to find him gone.

    "I've ghosted people before," laughs Armitage. "Just people you don't want to talk to anymore. Not digitally though."

    Another star, Jessica Plummer, isn't a fan of those who disappear without saying goodbye, though.

    "I'd just feel too guilty," she admits, calling it "cowardly and lazy — sorry Richard!"

    Eleazar promises twists and turns... Read More

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