Nintendo eyes sale of 10 million Switch consoles in year to March

Nintendo expects to sell 10 million units of the new Switch game console over the next year, the company said Thursday, as it bets big on the successor to its poor-selling Wii U. The forecast came as Nintendo reported its net profit in the just ended business year soared more than sixfold, though operating profit and revenue fell from a year ago. That gain in the bottom line is largely owed to the sale of a major stake in the Seattle Mariners baseball team, worth $661 million. The creator of the iconic Super Mario character launched the Switch in March and said it sold 2.74 million of the consoles in that month alone. Serkan Toto, industry analyst with Kantan Games, said what is now certain is that the Switch is the company's "bread-and-butter product for the video game business." Nintendo's fiscal year to March net profit came in at ¥102.6 billion ($921 million), compared with ¥16.5 billion a year ago.