Nintendo to launch new Wii

Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd said yesterday it will launch an upgraded model of its popular Wii game console in 2012, in a bid to reverse a fall in profits as sales of the aging first version ebb.

Japan's leading game console will unveil a prototype of the new Wii in Los Angeles on June 7 at the E3 game show, it said in a statement.

Nintendo posted its second straight fall in annual profit yesterday, as sales slowed of the Wii console.

To fend off increased competition from other game console makers such as Sony Corp and makers of smartphones including Apple Inc, Nintendo needs new hit machines to win back gamers.

As part of that plan, Nintendo launched a glasses-free 3D-capable handheld games device, the 3DS, in late February in Japan and a month later in the US and Europe.

In the business year just ended, Wii console sales fell to 15.1 million units from 20.1 million a year earlier.