UPDATE 3-Nintendo Q4 profit soars on DS, more growth ahead

(Adds more president quotes, analyst comments)

By Kiyoshi Takenaka

OSAKA, Japan, April 26 (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. Ltd. (7974.OS) scored a nearly eightfold rise in quarterly operating profit on vigorous sales of its DS handheld games, and forecast stronger than expected growth this year.

Operating profit at Nintendo, known for such game characters as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, jumped to 58.4 billion yen ($489.8 million) in January through March, according to a Reuters calculation based on the full-year figures which the company released. That compared with 7.6 billion a year earlier.

"It's a stunning result," KBC Securities analyst Hiroshi Kamide said. "It's phenomenal what they've managed to achieve in the last 12 months."

Nintendo, which competes with Sony Corp. (6758.T) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O) in the video game market, forecast a record operating profit of 270 billion yen for the current year to March 2008 -- higher than the consensus of 253.4 billion yen in a poll of 18 analysts by Reuters Estimates.

Sales have been boosted by the DS machine which offers intuitive, easy-to-play games such as the "Nintendogs" pet training title and has helped expand the gaming population beyond the hardcore user base of young men to include women and the elderly.

Aiming to repeat its success in the handheld game market in the console business, Nintendo also launched the Wii late last year. The machine has outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 in Japan and the United States, threatening the electronics maker's dominance in the $30 billion global game industry and providing Nintendo with another growth driver.

Nintendo said it aims to more than double its Wii sales to 14 million units in the current business year from 5.84 million a year earlier.