Officials from Nintendo have released a preliminary earnings statement that details the company’s annual profits, which represent a four-year high and record dividends due in part to a strengthening dollar. For the year ending March 31, net income rose 8.7 percent to ¥95 billion ($809m), compared to an earlier forecast of just ¥75 billion ($637m). The company also recorded a gain of ¥45 billion ($383m) due to favorable foreign exchange rates. Total revenue for the year fell 3 percent as forecast in January to approximately ¥500 billion ($4.2b). Operating profit (sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses) fell 91 percent to nearly ¥90 billion ($766m), the report showed. In addition, during the quarter ended March 31, company profits fell nearly 86 percent to ¥2.82 billion ($24m), and sales fell about 8.6 percent to ¥87.7 billion ($747m), based on subtracting April to December results from the full-year earnings announced today. The company also noted that despite a shortage of available units, sales of the Nintendo DS were kept strong in Japan by selling product intended for export. The company said as of February it had sold more than 6 million DS units in Japan since the launch in December 2004, and targets 10 million units by year-end, thanks in part to the release of the redesigned DS Lite, along with additional features such as a web browser and digital TV tuner. Nintendo's full-year net income is the highest since its ¥106 ($902m) profit in fiscal 2001. The company will report final earnings on May 25.