Once again SPOnG is forced to ask, "Did you know Nintendo is doing well for itself?" This time it's because its financial results from fiscal third quarter (October to December 2007) have more than doubled year-on-year. This has prompted the platform holder to raise its financial outlook.

It has also prompted an analyst close to the industry to say,"Well, d'uh!"

Nintendo itself only reported its results for the nine months to December, with operating profit having more than doubled over that period to 394 billion yen (£1.9 billion). However - according to calculation made on the back of Reuters' corporate fag packet - Nintendo's operating profit rose to 205.3 billion yen (£988 million) for October to December, compared to 100.5 billion yen (£484 million) in the same period the year before.

That's a raise of nearly 10% from the last estimate, which was 420 billion yen (£2.02 billion).

The upshot of this is that Nintendo has raised its profit expectations to a record 460 billion yen (£2.2 billion) for the full 2007/2008 fiscal year (ending March 31st this year).

The strong results didn't stop a senior fund manager at Norinchukin Zenkyoren Asset Management, Takeshi Osawa, from dishing out a slightly back-handed, compliment,"Solid results, but the market's attention is already on the year ahead", he said.^±

Reuters also tells us, "Fund managers said Nintendo's solid performance is well known and is factored into its share price, and what interests them most is how the company will manage to keep its strong momentum going."

It was just revealed that the Wii has now topped the 5 million sales mark in Japan, putting its installed base there at 2.9 times the size of the PS3's and 9.6 times the size of the 360's.

However, there's clearly a bit of chatter along the lines of 'we don't think Nintendo will keep this up' going round analysts' offices. Can it? Give us your take in the Forum.

^{± Source: Reuters}