Nintendo will unveil its first videogame for smartphones tomorrow, reports the WSJ.



“We will talk about details tomorrow,” Nintendo’s new chief executive, Tatsumi Kimishima, said Wednesday.



The news comes as the company announced an operating profit for the first half of the fiscal year, its first in five years. Despite the positive step, earnings still fell short of analyst forecasts due to weakening sales of the Wii U and 3DS.



For the six months ended in September, Nintendo recorded an operating profit of ¥8.98 billion ($74.6 million), a turnaround from a loss of ¥215 million a year earlier. Analysts had expected an operating profit of ¥14.4 billion. Sales rose to ¥204.2 billion from ¥171.4 billion, but net income fell to ¥11.5 billion from ¥14.3 billion. Last year, Nintendo’s net profit was inflated by gains in the dollar.



The late decision to create games for smartphones may help Nintendo offset stiff competition in the gaming console market.



“There are tough times ahead for Nintendo, because rivals are already moving on to next-generation technology, such as virtual reality,” said Osamu Kamada, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities.



In May, the company announced it would release its first game this year and have five games out by 2017.



"Regarding the number of the titles, you may want to know that we will release approximately five titles by the end of the next fiscal year, which is the end of March 2017. You may think it is a small number, but when we aim to make each title a hit, and because we want to thoroughly operate every one of them for a significant amount of time after their releases, this is not a small number at all and should demonstrate our serious commitment to the smart device business."



Nintendo is also working on a next generation console which could be touched on tomorrow as well. Please follow iClarified on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or RSS for updates.



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