CORRECTED: Nintendo raises full-year forecast

(Corrects software unit sales in paragraph 8 to 97 million, not 9.7 million)

By Edwina Gibbs

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd nearly tripled its first-half profit and boosted its annual earnings outlook on Thursday as its popular Wii and DS game machines outsell rival Sony Corp's PlayStation.

Offering quirky, easy-to-learn games and breaking new ground with motion-sensing controllers, Nintendo has expanded the gaming population to women and older people, a strategy that has helped its shares jump five-fold in two years.

Kyoto-based Nintendo raised its operating profit forecast for the year to March to 420 billion yen, in line with analysts' expectations, and up from an earlier estimate of 370 billion yen.

The revised forecast is 86 percent above the previous year's result and follows an increase in first-half profit to 188.8 billion yen.

Annual revenue is now expected to rise 60 percent to 1.55 trillion yen.

Demand for the Wii has been strong in the last couple of months, easily outpacing Sony's PlayStation 3, although Microsoft Corp's rival Xbox 360 has gained ground on its alien shooting game "Halo 3".

Sony, which has been selling PlayStation 3 below what it cost to produce, posted an operating loss in its game division during July-September but said it aims to break even or make a profit in the second half of the business year.