Updated: January 29, 2013 7:55 PM | By The Associated Press, thecanadianpress.com

Nintendo returns to profit, lowers sales forecasts

TOKYO - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. has returned to the black for the first nine months of the fiscal year but remains pessimistic about sales prospects.

Shoppers take escalators under the logo of Nintendo and Super Mario characters at an electronics store in Tokyo, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013. Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. has returned to the black for the first nine months of the fiscal year but remains pessimistic about sales prospects. The Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games reported Wednesday that April-December profit totaled 14.55 billion yen ($160 million), a reversal from the 48.35 billion yen loss reported a year earlier. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

TOKYO - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. has returned to the black for the first nine months of the fiscal year but remains pessimistic about sales prospects.

The Kyoto-based maker of Super Mario and Pokemon games reported Wednesday that April-December profit totalled 14.55 billion yen ($160 million), a reversal from the 48.35 billion yen loss reported a year earlier.

Nine-month sales inched up 2.4 per cent to 543 billion yen ($6 billion).

But Nintendo, which didn't break down quarterly results, isn't upbeat about its sales prospects and lowered its full year sales forecast.

It's expecting to sell 4 million Wii U consoles for the fiscal year, down from its earlier estimate of 5.5 million units. The Wii U went on sale late last year.