Massive increase in Pokemon profit forecasts

The company which markets the Pokemon games cards in Europe has sharply revised its profit forecasts after a massive increase in sales.

The Topps company says it expects European first quarter sales of the card and computer game which has captivated children around the world to reach seventy-million dollars.

Last month it had predicted that volume of sales for the whole year.

Correspondents say the game which features the mouse Pikachu and another one-hundred-and-forty-nine heroes and monsters has already made its Japanese creators, Nintendo, one of the richest toy and computer games companies in the world.

In Japan, sales totalled more than four-billion dollars within eighteen months of its launch. Other spin-offs have also proved hugely lucrative "Pokemon: The First Movie" has become the most successful animated film in history.

But the game has led to bullying and violence as children attempt to acquire all the cards in the series

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service