Japanese games group Nintendo said that brisk overseas sales of its Game Boy software and falling prices of key components for its consoles boosted its interim profit by 14.4%.

Defying gloomy consumer sentiment, the world's second-largest home video game maker said group net profit for the six months to September rose to ¥34.35bn (£198m), against ¥30.02bn a year earlier.

It notched up sales of ¥225.72bn in the period, up 18.4% year-on-year.

The results exceeded Nintendo's May forecast of ¥30bn. "Upbeat sales of software, especially outside Japan, the smooth launch of new game consoles, lower components prices and the weak yen all led to better-than-expected earnings in the first half," a spokesman added.

The creator of the popular Pokemon game series said that strong demand for Pokemon games in Europe boosted high-margin software sales for its first-generation Game Boy Colour handheld consoles.

Nintendo launched two game consoles this year, taking on rival Sony whose PlayStation2 has more than 20m users.

Reuters