SEOUL, Krafton Inc. on Wednesday reported its first-quarter net profit of 348.6 billion won (US$256 million), up 30.5 percent from a year earlier.The company said in a regulatory filing that it posted 310.5 billion won in operating profit for the quarter, compared with 283 billion won a year ago. Sales rose 23.6 percent to 665.9 billion won.The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 204.7 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.