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Thursday January 26, 5:37 PM Nintendo posts strong profit TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nintendo Co. Ltd. reported a strong third-quarter profit on Thursday, helped by solid demand for its game software, but kept its forecast for the full year lower than expected even as it unveiled a higher-end DS portable game device. Nintendo, known for games featuring characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, also said it will launch a thinner, lighter version of its DS portable device, called "Nintendo DS Lite," in Japan in March for 16,800 yen ($145), compared with the current model's retail price of 15,000 yen ($129). It plans to also launch DS Lite in Europe and the United States, but did not specify the timing. "I think it will sell well," said Eiji Maeda, an analyst with Daiwa Institute of Research. "The current DS has sold well for such a clunky portable device, so users are going to like the smaller version even better." Maeda expects DS Lite to contribute significantly to Nintendo's profits in the business year from April and help offset possible losses from its next-generation Revolution console, which is expected in the autumn. Revolution will be competing against Sony Corp.'s Playstation 3, which is also expected this year, and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360, launched last November. "NO QUESTION" OF FORECAST UPGRADE Nintendo has enjoyed a solid holiday season, particularly in Japan, due to the popularity of its DS portable game machine and games such as "Nintendogs," "Animal Crossing" and "Mario Kart." "Results were just as strong as we expected," said Takashi Oya, a Tokyo-based game analyst with Deutsche Securities. "There's no question Nintendo will be revising its full-year forecast later this quarter judging from how close they already are to the current forecast," he said. Nintendo's consolidated operating profit for October-December was roughly flat from a year earlier at 63.17 billion yen, according to Reuters calculations. Nintendo has already achieved about 92 percent of its current full business year forecast of 90 billion yen in the first nine months of the year. Analysts' consensus estimate for Nintendo's full-year operating profit was 94 billion yen, according to Reuters Estimates. "Nintendo is probably going to wait to revise its forecasts until early April after it knows for sure what the effect of foreign exchange rates will be on recurring and net profit in the fourth quarter," said Daiwa's Maeda. Sales rose about 2 percent to 235.98 billion yen in the key quarter when consumers worldwide buy game devices and software as holiday gifts. Games for its DS portable device dominated in Japan versus its rival Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP), while sales of DS and DS games gained momentum in the United States and Europe. Nintendo kept full-year unit sales forecasts for its game software unchanged. It currently expects to sell 55 million Game Boy Advance games, 40 million DS games and 30 million GameCube games in the current year. Its rival Sony said on Thursday that its game unit's operating income in the third quarter rose by 52 percent to 67.8 billion yen, helped by an increase of PSP sales. It said software sales were strong in U.S. and Europe but fell in Japan. Nintendo's consolidated net profit for October-December more than doubled to 55.56 billion yen from 21.3 billion a year earlier, helped by currency-related gains. The nine-month cumulative result of 92.2 billion yen has already beat its official forecast of 75 billion yen for the year and analysts' consensus estimate of 77.5 billion yen. The company posted a full-year net profit of 87.4 billion yen a year earlier. Shares in Nintendo rose 23.3 percent in the first nine months of its business year, underperforming the Nikkei average , which rose 40.2 percent. The stock closed up 1 percent at 16,380 yen on Thursday. ($1=115.82 yen)