Wii, DS Sales Catapult Nintendo

It keeps getting better and better for Nintendo(NTDOY), whose latest gaming console, Wii, is already a huge hit.

Buoyed by strong sales of its Wii and continued brisk business of handheld game console Nintendo DS, released in 2004, income rose 43.1% to 131.9 billion yen ($1.1 billion) for the nine months ended Dec. 31, compared with the same period last year.

The nine-month results topped Nintendo's expectations for the fiscal year ending March 31, for which the company forecast a rise in income to $1 billion.

The numbers shouldn't come as a surprise to Nintendo watchers as the company raised its earnings outlook earlier in January -- the second time since October.

Nintendo's blockbuster product has been the DS, the rival to Sony's (SNE) PlayStation console. The DS console sold 1.8 million units worldwide in the nine months ended Dec. 31, more than twice the 916,000 units sold during the same time last year. The DS Lite, launched in 2006, sold 1.6 million units during that period.

Nintendo's plan of making game consoles and titles that appeal to the whole family seems to be paying off, with games such as Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day and Nintendogs driving DS sales, the company said.

The Wii continued to be a hit, with 3.1 million units sold worldwide since its launch in November, halfway to the company's target of 6 million units worldwide by March.