Nintendo reports $350 million profit

TOKYO (AP) — Nintendo Co. reported a net profit of 41.8 billion yen ($350 million) for the fiscal year through March, a reversal from deep losses the previous year.

The results reported Thursday by the Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario video games and the Wii home console was better than its own forecast for a 30 billion yen ($251 million) profit. It was in line with the forecast in a FactSet survey of analysts.

Nintendo, which did not break down quarterly figures, reported a loss of 23.2 billion yen the previous fiscal year.

Nintendo did an about-face recently and said it’s entering smartphone games, a segment it brushed off for years as irrelevant.

Nintendo pioneered games, developing one of the first machines on the market, as well as the hit Game Boy handheld.