Hey, Buddy! Got some Yen to spare?
As much as loyalists may complain about some of Nintendo's business decisions, it's hard to argue with the bottom line. According to a Reuters news story, Nintendo is expected to post a nice profit for the period from April to September. Compare this to Sony and Sega and it becomes clear that Nintendo really knows what they're doing in the game industry. Click on the related link to see the whole story or just get the bottom line below.
Analysts expect Nintendo's parent-only current profit in the April-September period more than doubled, even though sales dropped about 20 percent as the yen's appreciation against the dollar eroded the value of overseas sales, which account for about 70 percent of total revenue.
Last month, Sony Corp reported a group net loss of 68.47 billion yen in the six months, against a 64.94 billion yen net profit a year earlier, due to the strong yen and the heavy cost of the roll out of the PlayStation 2, the successor to the world's top-selling home video game player.
A day later, Sega Corp, the world's third-largest video game maker, issued a loss warning, forecasting a group net loss of 29 billion yen against its initial estimate of a 600 million yen profit, blaming a cut in the overseas sales price of its mainstay Dreamcast game consoles to fend off competition from PlayStation 2.
Even with the N64 fading away and the next-generation consoles coming in full force, Nintendo managed to turn a nice profit. Of course, as nice as all this info is, does it really matter to gamers? You bet it does. As long as Nintendo is doing well financially, we'll continue to see them putting out the kind of games that only Nintendo can make. Nintendo puts out ground breaking software because of its talented developers and, just as importantly, because they have the time and money to continue working on a project until it's right. So, with the Big N continuing to turn a nice profit, you can bet that they'll have all the resources they need to let their Gameboy Advance and Gamecube games take gamers to the next level.
