Video game pioneers, Nintendo have surprised analysts by returning a slim profit of $8.9m in the first quarter of 2015.

The company sold only half a million Wii U consoles during the three month period. Nintendo fans have proved to be very active gamers - with the average Wii U owner buying six games.

Sales were driven by Splatoon - a cartoon-style third person shooter which sold 1.6 million copies.

A total of 4.5 million games were sold - and console sales passed the 10 million mark, during the 12 weeks.

This is close to three years after it was launched - Sony's PS4 passed the same figure during its first nine months.

The company's portable 3DS units passed the 2 million sales during the quarter - and its games generated 1.1 million sales.

Nintendo hopes to secure a "new source of revenue" before the end of 2015 as it rolls out its suite of mobile games.

These results are published weeks after the company's CEO and president, Satoru Iwata passed away earlier in July.