Nintendo Hikes Profit Forecast as Switch Battles On 

People look at merchandise on display at a Nintendo store in central Tokyo on November 6, 2023. (AFP)
People look at merchandise on display at a Nintendo store in central Tokyo on November 6, 2023. (AFP)
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Nintendo Hikes Profit Forecast as Switch Battles On 

People look at merchandise on display at a Nintendo store in central Tokyo on November 6, 2023. (AFP)
People look at merchandise on display at a Nintendo store in central Tokyo on November 6, 2023. (AFP)

Nintendo on Tuesday raised its operating profit forecast for the financial year ending March by 11% to 500 billion yen ($3.32 billion) as its aging Switch console continues to attract gamers.

The Kyoto-based gaming firm has extended the lifecycle of the hybrid home/portable device, now in its seventh year in the market, through a series of heavy-hitting games.

Nintendo sold 6.84 million Switch units in the first six months of the financial year, a slight increase on the 6.68 million units it sold in the same period last year.

Critically acclaimed titles this year include "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom", which went on sale in May, and "Super Mario Bros. Wonder" which launched in October.

Nintendo's broad pop culture appeal has also been underscored by the success of a Super Mario Bros. movie.

Nintendo maintained its full-year forecast for the console of 15 million units, which would be a 16.5% decline on a year earlier.

This year has been a stand-out one for the release of new games across the industry, after the pandemic caused widespread disruption to development.

Nintendo's line-up for the critical year-end shopping season will likely also be bolstered by some new additions including "Super Mario RPG", which launches on Nov. 17.



China's Baidu Launches Two New AI Models as Industry Competition Heats Up

People walk past a Baidu logo outside the company headquarters in Beijing on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
People walk past a Baidu logo outside the company headquarters in Beijing on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
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China's Baidu Launches Two New AI Models as Industry Competition Heats Up

People walk past a Baidu logo outside the company headquarters in Beijing on February 2, 2024. (AFP)
People walk past a Baidu logo outside the company headquarters in Beijing on February 2, 2024. (AFP)

China's Baidu said on Sunday it has launched two new artificial intelligence models, including a new reasoning-focused model that it said rivalled DeepSeek's model, as it vies to stand out in a fiercely competitive AI race.

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek's roll-out of AI models which it says is on par with, or even better than, industry-leading models in the United States at a fraction of the cost, has roiled the industry and re-energized the global AI race.

"ERNIE X1 delivers performance on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price," Baidu said of one of the new models.

The X1 has "stronger understanding, planning, reflection, and evolution capabilities," Baidu said, adding that it is the first deep thinking model that uses tools autonomously.

Baidu said its latest foundation model ERNIE 4.5 has "excellent multimodal understanding ability. It has more advanced language ability, and its understanding, generation, logic, and memory abilities are comprehensively improved."

It also has "high EQ", and it is easy to understand network memes and satirical cartoons, Baidu said.

One of China's earliest tech giants to launch a ChatGPT-style chatbot, Baidu has struggled to gain widespread adoption for its Ernie large language model, despite claiming performance comparable to OpenAI's GPT-4, amid fierce competition.

Multimodal AI systems are capable of processing and integrating various types of data including text, video, images and audio, and can convert content across these formats.