Nintendo's Market Value Briefly Tops Sony's

GameDaily reports on news from Reuters; today for the first time Nintendo outpaced Sony's market value. Note that this isn't Sony's games wing, but the entirety of the Sony corporation. Investor confidence spurred by brisk sales of the DS and Wii pushed Nintendo (briefly) into the top ten earners in the nation of Japan, with such rarefied organizations as Honda, Toyota, and Canon. "Nintendo's shares rose to a record high 46,350 yen in the morning, increasing its overall market value to 6.57 trillion yen ($53 billion), which allowed it to surpass Sony's market capitalization for a time. The company's shares, however, finished the day a bit lower putting Nintendo back in 11th place behind Sony, but still ahead of Panasonic maker Matsushita, whose sales are over eight times larger than Nintendo's. Nintendo's market value closed at 6.39 trillion yen on Monday, just below Sony's 6.48 trillion yen."

Great news

[AuMatar]

Especially since I bought Nintendo stock when I saw Sony repeatedly shooting itself in the foot.

Re:

[MadUndergrad]

Bah, would that I had had the money to invest in Nintendo a year ago, when I very much wanted to.

Re:

[riskeetee]

In the US, the stock is traded as NTDOY (on Yahoo, it's NTDOY.PK http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NTDOY.PK [yahoo.com]). It's on the "Pink Sheets http://www.pinksheets.com/about/index.jsp [pinksheets.com]," as an OTC (over-the-counter) traded stock.

NTDOY stock represents 1/8 of a share of Nintendo stock traded on the Tokyo stock exchange, NTDOF represents one share. Most people trade the NTDOY, which is currently trading at 45.85.

Re:Great news

[AuMatar]

Actually, its 90% idiots and fanboys. You make your money by predicting how the idiots and fanboys will react.

In this case it wasn't fanboyism. I saw one company about to go out on a limb with an innovative new product. I saw another company about to go out with an overpriced product that didn't provide much more than their last generation. I saw a lot of buzz among the gaming community about the innovative new product. I decided I had room in my portfolio for some risk, took it, and made a decent chunk of change.

Re:

[donaldm]

If you wish to play the stock market then you cannot afford to get attached to your stock, as well as taking advice from a competent stockbroker or adviser, of course it helps if you are one. In addition you also have to be prepared to loose money but with good advise you can make quite a considerable amount of money.

From the Article:
For all the positives surrounding Nintendo right now, though, Koyama cautioned that investors need to be very careful with the stock. "This is one of those companies that i

Re:

[DDLKermit007]

Yeah, someone doesn't sound just slightly angry they wern't Nintendo's target demographic.

Re:

[TeraCo]

Paying $200 for an overclocked gamecube that doesn't provide much over the past generation other than a magic wand gimmick seems overpriced to me -- and a console with all the connectivity and processing power of a high-end desktop sure seems innovative, even if that's not what you meant to imply.

Well now, one of these is making just under a hojillion dollars a millisecond in profit, and the other is languishing on store shelves. Regardless of which one you think is 'innovative' and 'overpriced', the pare

Re:

[blackicye]

I think one of the strongest selling points for the Wii is that there are modchips already available. And you can download and burn games onto DVDRs.

Its likely that once the PS3s copy protection has been broken, their sales will increase drastically (much more so than a price cut would induce.) Because even without the relative availability and affordability of bluray burners, being able to easily swap out the harddrive (or hack the interface to fit a full size 3.5" SATA drive) will work.

This also seemed to

Re:

[donaldm]

I would assume the strongest selling point for the Wii is it's perceived fun factor with it's unusual movement sensing controller, not the ability to mod it which would void it's warranty.

As far as cracking the PS3 copy protection which will be done sooner or later I assume you have a cheap collection of Blu-Ray disks that you can afford to copy your games to. That and that alone makes copying PS3 games expensive. This was one of the reasons why the PS2 had DVD since coping games to a DVD was expensive in

Re:

[blackicye]

As far as cracking the PS3 copy protection which will be done sooner or later I assume you have a cheap collection of Blu-Ray disks that you can afford to copy your games to. That and that alone makes copying PS3 games expensive. This was one of the reasons why the PS2 had DVD since coping games to a DVD was expensive in 2000. Over time as Blu-Ray disks come down in price you will start to see pirating of games but this becomes a none event when you can get second-hand games and even some newer games fairly

Grandma is 133t

[Chibi Merrow]

I think one of the strongest selling points for the Wii is that there are modchips already available. And you can download and burn games onto DVDRs.

Yeah, because all those grandmothers buying the Wii are l33t h@x0r pirates. Get a life. Software to hardware sales ratios started out better than 3-to-1, and I think have gotten better since. People are buying the Wii and buying games, not pirating them.

Re:

[blackicye]

Yeah, because all those grandmothers buying the Wii are l33t h@x0r pirates. Get a life.

While we're on the subject of ad hominem attacks.. Get your head out of your ass, Nintendo fanboi.

You honestly believe grandmothers are the ones who are wiping these consoles off the shelves?

I'm sure the wii has the largest following of elderly gamers of any console to date, but you think the sales to the older folks even accounts for 5% of the wii sales? I think you're deluded.

And yes, people are pirating wii games, as w

Re:

[Chibi Merrow]

I'm sure the wii has the largest following of elderly gamers of any console to date, but you think the sales to the older folks even accounts for 5% of the wii sales?

No, but I think the vast vast majority of Wii sales have been to non-tech-savvy users. I used "Grandma" as the extreme example of this, but the soccer moms buying this for their kids aren't buying it to modchip it either. "Grandma" is also personally a funny example to me since recently a discussion popped up on a GDC mailing list about an ar [newsweek.com]

Re:

[superbus1929]

No, Nintendo released a gimmick that has captivated the casual gaming market. Who cares if it's an over-clocked Gamecube that doesn't actually provide shit except a new way to blame game loss on shitty controls? It took the market by storm, and therefore made Nintendo - and people like the poster in question - a LOT of money. Even if the Wii falls off the face of the earth as game makers fail to make anything remotely interesting that doesn't involve Mario and Co., the money's been made, and smart investor

Re:

[CronoCloud]

And don't forget the DS's stranglehold on the market, either; the only thing the PSP really has going for it is RPGs in that aspect.

But that is strong market. If you want portable RPG's the PSP is the go to device similar to how the PS2 was/is.

Re:

[CronoCloud]

Sure it's successfull, but the attach rate is low. Wii's are selling to people who aren't traditional gamers and who simply do not buy games. Those people are using their Wii's as a manner similar to those joysticks with built in games. They're not Wii's but Wii Sports machines.

Explains what step 2 was

[Dorceon]

in the old nugget:

1. Buy Nintendo stock
2. ???
3. Profit!

Re:Explains what step 2 was

[SydShamino]

If you are a corporate execute at Sony's console division:

1. Buy Nintendo stock
2. Open your mouth
3. Profit!

Re:

[CarnivoreMan]

That ref doesnt really apply here.. There is no unknown magical step #2 like between the underpants and profit.

Do one thing

[Volante3192]

and do it WELL. Just seems to me to be a better business model than to try to do everything and not be able to focus on anything.

Course, I'm a Ninty fanboy, so I'm slightly biased...

Re:

[UbuntuDupe]

Yeah, well, wasn't that GMC's slogan? Apparently, they take "one thing" to mean "make cars and run the world's largest health insurance plan". Go fig.

Re:

[Volante3192]

Well, I'd argue they didn't exactly adhere to the "well" part... But that's a whole nother debate, one I'd probably lose simply for lack of an knowledge on the topic.

Re:Do one thing

[ceoyoyo]

Nonsense. GM runs a really good loan business. They just have to work out how to make their loss leaders (cars) a bit more efficiently.

Re:

[HarvardAce]

GM runs a really good loan business.

GMAC [wikipedia.org] is no longer a subsidiary of GM. It was sold to a private equity firm, and GM only has a minority stake in it.

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

They sold their most profitable division? Crazy. I guess they wanted to concentrate on their core competency... losing money.

Re:

[TheGeneration]

Well, I'd argue they didn't exactly adhere to the "well" part... But that's a whole nother debate, one I'd probably lose simply for lack of an knowledge on the topic.

I think it's a good point though. GMC really didn't do the car making part "well" anymore. They've been catch up with the Japanese and the Europeans in the "Quality" department for decades now. American cars are boring, uncool, have a reputation for not lasting.

The first thing I notice when I sit down in a car is the console. I want a conso

Re:

[Grave]

GMC is a division of GM, not GM itself. GMC sells more trucks than any non-American brand. They might not have had the greatest interiors until recently, but their trucks are very reliable and capable. When it comes to trucks, those things matter far more than a stylish interior (which GM as a whole has been making huge strides in). So I'd say GMC's slogan is fairly accurate.

Re:

[aliquis]

That's ok because in Nintendos case they do consoles, games and pokémon (games, consoles, toys, furry animals, series, movies, ...)

Time to short?

[jandrese]

Sounds to me like Nintendo might be a bit overvalued. The Wii is great, but the games have just been trickling out for it and people are going to lose some of their enthusiasm for the system before too long. I'm not an investor, but I can't see how they can maintain that sort of overinflated valuation for too long.

Re:Time to short?

[Altus]

yes, games have been few and far between for the Wii, but the console has sold like hotcakes. This implies that games will be released for it in the future.

A lot of game development companies bet against the Wii and that was a poor bet for them to make. I'm sure many of them would like to go back and release on the Wii just to get a crack at the installed base. I doubt they will make the same mistake now that the Wii is on the market and outselling the other consoles.

That said, Nintendo is probably close to the peak of its value and would not make a fantastic investment right now. Even if the console continues to sell well and the new games come out and Nintendo is fantastically successful, how much higher can the stock reasonably go?

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

"how much higher can the stock reasonably go?"

no need for reason. this is the stockmarket, after all.

Stock

[Poromenos1]

how much higher can the stock reasonably go?

I don't know, that sounds like one of those statements that come back to bite you in the ass :P

Re:

[MeanderingMind]

Even in the case where there are no current third party titles that sold significantly (although I believe titles such as Rayman contest this), the statement can still be true.

If we assume that every third party publisher of repute and skill ignored the Wii or otherwise gave it passing attention, then it would make perfect sense that there are no (or very few) notable third party titles. Almost everyone missed the boat.

Install base doesn't guarantee sales, and I'm sure most companies are taking into conside

Re:

[suv4x4]

Sounds to me like Nintendo might be a bit overvalued. The Wii is great, but the games have just been trickling out for it and people are going to lose some of their enthusiasm for the system before too long. I'm not an investor, but I can't see how they can maintain that sort of overinflated valuation for too long.

The funny thing is, they've survived thus far on classics such as mario, zelda and so on. Why would you think they suddenly need a river of games to keep gamers interested.

It's not about quantity

Re:Time to short?

[DaAdder]

Games have been trickling out since most of the game producers are of the wait-and-see variety.

The Wii's success was soon evident to everyone though and most of the large game makers jumped on the bandwageon. However since games aren't produced in an instant, you'll see an avalanche of games released for the Wii, starting late '07, but mostly throughout, and towards the end of, '08.

News is surfacing that some companies are shifting focus from Sony to Nintendo entirely:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/the-tide/big-japanese-pub lishers-shift-from-sony-to-nintendo-271785.php [kotaku.com]

My guess is that this'll keep happening unless/until the PS3 somehow manages to pick it sales up significantly and reach some form of critical mass.

Re:

[Chris Burke]

I agree that Nintendo is probably overvalued, but I don't think it's because of the games. Yes the games are just trickling out, but that's fairly normal in the first year of a console's life, and we know that a lot of studios were caught off guard by the Wii's success at launch and thus will be late bringing games to the Wii. The time to worry about a lack of games will be Christmas, when having the AAA titles out will be important.

The reason I think N is probably overvalued is simply because the company

Re:

[catprog]

The thing is while Sony's revenue is much higher they make very little profit of that.

Nintendo make more profit for the same amount of revenue

You're forgetting something

[gilesjuk]

All the other consoles are making a loss with each sale. The Wii makes Nintendo a profit with each sale. That profit can be invested in Nintendo's own development of games which are usually very good games.

Sony will lose even more money once they lower the very high price of a PS3.

Re:

[moderatorrater]

IMHO, they're not overvalued enough to justify much of a fall in stock price, if any at all. The DS is one of the most successful gaming systems of all time and the Wii is looking to do just as well. The DS had a rough time just after its launch with a lack of games as well. So while I think Nintendo is overvalued for now, I think that it's just a waiting game at this point, with more AAA titles from Nintendo and developer support ramping up.

Re:

[metroid composite]

I always scratch my head when people say "where are the games?"

Number of Games released in 2007 according to Gamerankings:

360: 53
PS2: 45
PSP: 44
DS: 35
Wii: 26
PS3: 17

Now, as previous people have said, systems typically have a game drought right after launch. Wii and DS are also in a funny position where they tend to get more exclusives but fewer ports due to their unique controls and crap (the big reason why PSP consistently has more releases than DS). Fact is, despite being fresh off launch, Wii is already

Re:

[ozphx]

At the moment its valued more than the combined might of all of Sony. That includes Sony-BMG etc.

I find that amazing. I'm honestly surprised that the word Sony isnt worth more than all of Ninty ;)

I like the Wii and all, but Sony is a great big bloody monolith (like the ps3, heh)

Re:

[LKM]

I agree that Nintendo is overvalued, but not for the reasons you state. Nintendo will soon come out with Wii Sports follow ups like Wii Music and Wii Fitness. That will give them yet another boost - not to mention their "hardcore market" fanservices like the new Mario or the new Metroid games. I have little doubt that the Wii will be the dominant console this generation, just like the DS dominates the portable market. Personally, I think that within five years, Nintendo will have sold as many Wiis as 360s a

Re:

[Atzanteol]

But the Wii is outselling the PS3 bigtime [dailytech.com].

Re:Time to short?

[eln]

Hi,

My kids play the Wii constantly. I play it when I get the time to. There, now you've heard from a Wii owner whose system isn't gathering dust.

If you are the kind of person who is out buying 1080p TV sets when they still cost as much as they do, then you're probably also the kind of person who will spend $600 on a game console so you can have the most powerful system on the market. If that's you, then go buy a PS3. Technophiles are not the target market for the Wii.

If you didn't like any of Nintendo's previous offerings, why would you think you would like the Wii? Did you just get one because everyone else was, and you wanted to be part of the crowd? Or did you pretend to get one just so you could troll Slashdot?

I agree with you that Nintendo's stock will fall (although probably not plummet), but not for the reasons you state.

Re:

[zstlaw]

At a party recently a group of well-off yuppie gamers with a couple game developers thrown in mostly shrugged at a topic of the PS3 and Resistance Fall of Man, then got really excited about the merits of the technology behind the 360's Gears of War. I think this shows how little the PS3 has done to catch its core demographic of serious gamers with money for tech.

And yet the Wii is the social system. At the party several people played the Wii, non-gamer friends of the host picked it up and had fun with us

Re:

[satoshi1]

Awww! Little fanboy's favorite system didn't do as well as they hoped? Go cry. It's funny.

Re:

[ak3ldama]

by Anonymous Coward...
Why the hell would you post something so fucking inane with your real account?
If you're going to make up stories...of fuck it dimwit. Plonk!
Yea, you really told him. Way to stand up and be accountable, you Anonymous fucking Coward. He told a decent story, giving a representative demonstration of one of the main markets that the PS3 is for and how Sony has failed to enthuse. I really feel trolled for even responding, and I am probably bringing the conversation down - but this sto

Re:Time to short?

[MeanderingMind]

Hi, I have a 46" HD TV, the sound system to go with it, and an Xbox 360 to play on it. I haven't touched the Xbox except to play movies for some time. Maybe once in the past 6 months (when Armored Core 4 came out).

I also have a Wii.

The Wii is not as impressive graphically as the 360 on the HDTV, but I can not say it looks like crap. It's decent, not "Wow" but decent. The 360 and PS3 are "Wow" when it comes to graphics, I'll give them that much.

However, I play my Wii far more than my other consoles. That's not to say I spend oodles of time playing it, but it garners more of my attention.

If you want a system that looks like crap on an HDTV, get a PS2. Several of my games were literally unplayable because of how it was displayed. It was visibly different than how it would look on an SDTV to the point of being a garbled mess. Unless the game is explicitly HD, it's probably going to look terrible.

I doubt the GP fits into the "trailer trash" stereotype anymore than I do. There are far better arguments to make against the Wii than ad hominem attacks. You're intelligent enough to spell, you should be intelligent enough to come up with something more substancial than pure insults.

Re:

[Rathmine]

I beg to differ regarding your account of a PS2 looking like crap on an HDTV. Judging by the description of your television, I take it you are probably looking at an LCD or plasma screen 46" in size, in which case I am out of my element as far as the gaming experience. On my 26" 16:9 CRT HDTV, however, the PS2 looks excellent by my standards, doubly so when I'm able to invoke the blessed "Progressive" setting that games such as God of War offer. But even on meager SD games, the graphics look just fine to my

Re:

[MeanderingMind]

Firstly, I'm not speaking in terms of my general opinion as to the quality of the graphics so much as to their actual functional rendering. It looks, as best as I can tell, like when the PS2 has an SD title playing on an HD TV the rendering of polygons suffers greatly in terms of clarity. It is literally like taking one's glasses off.

The offending game in this case was Dynasty Warriors 5. The first caveat I should make is that I do not have an component cable for my PS2. However, I don't see why a game with

Re:

[valintin]

One of the local bars in town has a Wii now. Credit card or a 40 dollar deposit on the controllers. No outside games; No boxing; No 18 rounds of Golf; Must use wrist strap.

That's amazing and not something that is going to suddenly fallout with players.

Re:

[CCW]

If you don't like it, sell it on ebay and get your money back. Better be quick too - They are still going for a premium but at some point that will change with all the wii owners being so disillusioned with their system. Then you can pick up a PS3 at discount and enjoy that HDTV resolution goodness while you watch all the great blueray movies and play whatever game it is that PS3 gamers like. Or pick up an XBox360 and watch HD-DVD movies and play whatever game it is that XBox360 gamers like.

What I don't

Re:

[MeanderingMind]

Indeed, I know I'm excited about Metroid Prime: Corruption, Super Smash Bros: Brawl, Super Mario Galaxy, and Manhunt 2 (damn the ESRB) etc. Glad to see others are as well. /notsarcasm

So?

[lpangelrob]

Unless either company decides to buy all its stock back or liquidate itself in the time period of three seconds... why does this matter?

Re:

[sssssss27]

I think it more or less just puts into perspective how well Nintendo is doing and how poorly Sony is doing. People aren't going to invest in a company that they don't have faith in.

Re:

[xero314]

People aren't going to invest in a company that they don't have faith in.

I know I wouldn't invest in a company that was ranked 164th in last years fortune 2000 and happened to drop out of the top 10 market value in japan for mere moments. I would much rather invest in a company that was ranked 695th (down 75 from the previous year) in fortune and broke the top 10 market value in japan but couldn't maintain the rank through market closing.

Seriously I'm not knocking Nintendo, but to imply that investors are going to lose faith in Sony is foolish.

Re:

[sssssss27]

I apologize. I didn't mean to say that people are going to lose faith in Sony just that stocks are a good way of telling how people feel about particular companies. It won't give you a long term picture of the way people feel about the company but more of a day to day reflection.

Re:

[joggle]

Yes, it's true that a stock value only shows the current perception of a company's worth, not its long-term value. However, it is significant IMO that Nintendo is currently considered to be roughly worth the same as all of Sony which, by any measure, is a much larger company. Way to go Nintendo!

Re:

[ceoyoyo]

The stock value is a prediction of the long term value of a company. So Nintendo having a market cap close to or the same as Sony even though it's a smaller company in every other way means that investors expect it's long term value to be similar to Sony's.

Re:

[moderatorrater]

It matters because it highlights how well Nintendo is doing compared to Sony, two companies from the same region dealing with gamers. Sony is a huge company with multiple divisions as large as their gaming division. Nintendo, which just does games, briefly surpassing Sony outlines that a lot of investors believe Nintendo to be a better company (considering how the Wii and DS are making money hand over fist, I'd have to agree with them).

Damn.

[cromar]

'Nuf said.

This means one thing...

[DogDude]

Nintendo stock is grossly overvalued right now. Good time to short it (unless of course, you happen to think that the Wii will singlehandedly replace all stereo, television, computer equipment, and all other consumer electronic on the planet, as opposed to simply being a fad game system). At a P/E of 53.78 there are a lot of really, really stupid people pretending to be investors out there.

Wiis Still Selling As Fast As They Make 'Em

[miller60]

Here in NJ there are still console shoppers staking local game stores for new arrivals of the Wii. I was just at a local gaming store, and in the 10 minutes I was there, two shoppers came in and asked "if they had any in yet." No such luck. No inventory shortages for the PS3, tho.

Re:

[CorSci81]

If you mean irony in that now the Wii is the supply constrained console, I might remind you that it's outselling the PS3 and Xbox360 in pretty much every region. Even supply constrained. From that perspective it seems they aren't performing so poorly production-wise.

Re:

[LKM]

Yeah, that would be ironic if Nintendo didn't have the supplies. They do. They sell more than the 360 and the PS3. The problem is that they still don't have enough.

It's true.

[Ayanami Rei]

Even if the anecdote is a fabrication. WTF is up with Big-N's production line because it is utter bullshit that I cannot pick up a system anywhere. I WANT TO PLAY MANHUNT 2 DAMNIT. AND I WANT THE EXTRA GRUESOME DEATH SCENES.
And I am going to play it on a shitty SD television through a 3rd party coax converter tuned to the wrong channel and the coax sheath freyed so it has a realistic gritty snow effect making the game even more INTENSE.

Just Another Manic Monday...

[StikyPad]

A) Sorry, with a P/E of 31 (in times of plenty), this is a good example of an overinflated stock with unsustainable growth. (Sony's P/E is also high at 54 since investors are betting the PS3 will take off at some point -- I think they're right, but I still don't think it's a good buy.)

B) If Nintendo doesn't either start putting out some quality titles, or convincing third parties to do it for them, the Wii excitement will quickly turn to Wiimorse. I really *want* to like this console, but I haven't found a game yet that holds my attention, or my son's, with the exception of Paper Mario, and the caveat that it was too difficult for him, and too easy/tedious for anyone with a little Mario experience under their belt. And why it doesn't support either the "classic controller" (when holding the Wiimote sideways is anything but ergonomic) or motion sensing (when that's the main selling point of the console) is beyond me. Anyway, yeah. More and better games -- and soon!

Re:

[Chris Burke]

A) Wow! Okay, I was looking for N's p/e ratio but didn't find it. While 31 is pretty high, I had assumed it would be higher that Sony's simply due to Sony being a much larger company with more revenue streams. That's not a good thing for Sony. I think both are headed for some stock readjustment.

B) Not a big deal until Christmas, at least as far as N's prospects, revunues and share price are concerned. Personally I'm struggling to find enough time to play the games I have (Zelda, Trauma Center, Godfather

Not to forget NGC (and NDS) games...

[aliquis]

Also since it can play gamecube games for the people who already haven't owned a gamecube, and I guess that are plenty, there are quite a few titles for the gamecube out there aswell. Some RPGs (Baten Kaitos, err.. damn I suck at names :D, oh well, there are a few which seems nice anyway), both metroids, smash football, paper mario thousand years door, uhm, and probably more ;/.

Thought I guess the best consoles to own right now is the PS2 and the DS since both are cheaps and have lots of games. Personally I

Re:

[Kaenneth]

I'd rather have $250 in remorse than $700...

Re:

[ivan256]

Want people to take your post seriously instead of assuming you're a fanboy? Well then don't arbitrarily add $100 to the price of the thing you're biased against.

Re:

[tepples]

don't arbitrarily add $100 to the price of the thing you're biased against.

As far as I know, PLAYSTATION 3 does not come with a game. My Wii came with five.

Re:

[ivan256]

If each of the games in Wii Sports counts as a game, then there are plenty of demos on the Playstation network for free download that would count equally. Either way, if assigning the value "$100" to Wii Sports isn't arbitrary I don't know what is.

Re:

[trdrstv]

If each of the games in Wii Sports counts as a game, then there are plenty of demos on the Playstation network for free download that would count equally. Either way, if assigning the value "$100" to Wii Sports isn't arbitrary I don't know what is.

I don't think the value of $100 is for WiiSports (If so, that is unreasonable). It is for a PS3 game ($60) since it doesn't have one bundled. That leaves $40 USD unaccounted for, and since they didn't round up for the Wii, I'll assume they didn't add VAT, or T

Re:

[ivan256]

It seems like people are going to great lengths to explain his clearly arbitrary price discrepancy. The cable? Give me a break. The PS3 is the only console I can think of since the 8-bit days that actually takes a standard video cable. You don't need any special Sony cable. Just a $4 HDMI cable [monoprice.com] does the trick.

Disclaimer: I own both a Wii and a PS3, and I have $0 of buyers remorse. Though given the fact that I've been playing mostly PS2 games lately due to the lack of quality new releases for both systems, p

Re:

[CastrTroy]

Maybe he's adding in the cost of a game. The Wii already comes with one. So the games don't quite cost $100, but it'll bring the price close to $700 than it is to $600.

Re:

[MeanderingMind]

A) Definately. It's absolutely incredible that a specialized business was able to overtake a multifaceted mega-giant, even for a moment. That said, this is probably the worst time to be investing in Nintendo stock. The Wii can be a wild success and dominate the generation and the stock still might recess down to a more sane level. If you didn't jump on the boat before the launch, it's a bad idea to hop on now. It might still go up, but it'll be amazing if it doesn't come down.

B) Assuming Metroid Prime: Corr

Re:

[aliquis]

2) So buy gamecube games, they use the gamecube controller which is very convenient and there probably exist plenty of games which your son can handle.

Nintendo doesn't need "hardcore" games

[LKM]

If Nintendo doesn't either start putting out some quality titles, or convincing third parties to do it for them, the Wii excitement will quickly turn to Wiimorse. I really *want* to like this console, but I haven't found a game yet that holds my attention

But people didn't buy the Wii for "games that hold their attention" such as Zelda or Super Paper Mario. They bought Wiis for Wii Sports. Nintendo doesn't actually need "hardcore" games (although a few are coming out). What they need is a few strong follow-ups for Wii Sports. And they have these, too - Wii Fitness and Wii Music are looking extremely interesting.

Re:

[phantomfive]

I don't know why you are so down on their P/E ratio. it just means investors expect their profits to go up, which in this case is reasonable. Their P/E ratio in November was around 40, so it is actually adjusting by increasing profits. This is still a good buy.

Wii doen't need 100s of games...

[PhoenixOne]

The Wii isn't marketed to the hardcore gamer like the PS3 and XBox360 are. I know people who got their console last year and are still happy playing the Wii Sports game that came with it.

The thing that will kill Wii sales the quickest are too many crappy games. If Nintendo promised 380 games this year, I'd sell my stocks as fast as I could. If you want to know why, look up what caused the great video game crash of the 1980's (it wasn't just ET ;)).

Even if only 1 or 2 good games come out a year for the W

Wii is fun with friends

[Ponny]

When having friends over, playing Playstation is fun and geeky. When having friends over, playing Wii is light-hearted and social. I got a Wii so my non-gamer friends can play along instead than getting their butts handed to them in Tekken round after round.

Wiimorse? I don't think so. Wii wins hands down

[Drake42]

I'm not employed by any game company. If I had any financial motivation it would be toward MS winning since I can code games on their console using their open dev tools.

That said, the Wii kicks and continues to kick everyone else's ass. Last night after playing so much golden axe and boxing that I couldn't stand it any more I decided "Hey I want to see some better graphics" I loaded up my 360, looked at the games I had available and none of them sounded all that appealing. I tried "Small Arms" and it just didn't look so amazing that it was more fun to play. Same with PocketBike. Considered loading up Dead Rising but didn't want to invest the time. Nothing else grabbed me so I went right back to the Wii for a few more rounds of tennis and went to bed.

Like it or Hate it, the Wii has more staying power than any of the other consoles, graphics or not. You can say that Nintendo stock is over priced if you want, but people said that about google for ages and then their stock price rose anyway.

People are fundamentally fed up with products that don't work / don't do what they claim / are so over-hyped that I have to tune them out just to think. The people of the world want simple services that actually and reliably work. Google and Nintendo are delivering that and so the market is rewarding them and will continue to do so for quite some time. I'm betting that I'll have a lot more fun playing Smash Brothers with my friends than playing Halo with whiny ass, vomit talking, on-line clans.

I love my 360. And someday I'll buy a (lower cost) PS3 just for the eye candy. But when I want to play a game, I keep on going back to the Wii even after having it for quite a while.

Re:

[Megane]

If I had any financial motivation it would be toward MS winning since I can code games on their console using their open dev tools.

Wow, where did you get that definition of "open" from? From Ebay, where "mint" is a flavor?

You have to pay $99 a year, can't share with other people who don't also pay $99 a year, the tools themselves are certainly not open source, and no gnu-ware tools.

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[Turey]

I believe the concept you're failing to grasp is that of "relative". Show me where you can get a Wii or PS3 Dev kit for under $99 on the open market.

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[revengebomber]

Ahem. [playstation.com]

All the Linux you can handle, and even without the GPU it's more power than you'll ever need for a homebrew game. If you're a small developer, the Wii devkits are fairly cheap ($5000 or so, but I'm probably wrong here).

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[MorpheousMarty]

I agree, that is why I have a Wii and a PC. When I want to game, and not waste my life tuning settings, I play Wii. When I want the best graphics possible I use my PC. The Xbox and the PS3 both feel like PC's I'm not allowed to tune to my liking, and for that I would only buy them if they had some GREAT games for them, which eventually they will, but as you said, nothing is grabbing me now so I play Resident Evil 4 on the Wii and am more pleased with it than everything but God of War II.

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[Das Modell]

So you don't want to waste your life tuning settings (which really means that your game's performance is not satisfactory and you have to fiddle around with the settings, defrag your hard-disk and update your drivers), but you don't like it that the PS3 and 360 don't allow you to tune settings (which is of course completely unnecessary with consoles)?

The fact that you don't need to spend hours tweaking settings on a 360 is a good thing.

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[Das Modell]

Like it or Hate it, the Wii has more staying power than any of the other consoles, graphics or not.

I'd appreciate it if you didn't present completely subjective opinions as hard fact. I'm buying a 360 next week because it has tons of released and upcoming games that interest me. The Wii has exactly one (Metroid Prime 3), so the Wii really doesn't interest me and neither does its controller.

I love my 360. And someday I'll buy a (lower cost) PS3 just for the eye candy. But when I want to play a game, I keep o

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[xero314]

Being one of the few to get the reference, I have to give you props for pulling that at.

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[7Prime]

Nice... Always great to see a Rush reference. New album is amazing, btw... been listening to it non-stop.

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[mqduck]

Uh, give the revisionism a fucking rest.

No one ever talked about 'Nintendo's Demise'.

Dude, temper. I don't know where you were, but the demise of Nintendo was considered an inevitability almost the day after the Gamecube came out. Not because it sold horribly, but because all the video games happenings were on other systems. Few games, especially the interesting ones, came out on Gamecube. It seemed to guarantee that Nintendo wasn't going to do what it had to to retake the lead after the N64 sucked so hard

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[Terminal Saint]

People always talk about how much the 64 supposedly sucked, but come on: Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time, Perfect Dark, Mario Kart 64, Paper Mario, Smash Bros...

It had some of the best damn games of all time.

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[CastrTroy]

It sure didn't have quantity, but it had the quailty. Over the 4 years that anybody owns a console, before moving to the next generation, they shouldn't need any more than 10 games. I don't play every night, but I play a couple times a week, and 10 games would easily last me for 4 years. I'm still playing Mario Kart Double Dash on my Wii because that is just such a great game. I also downloaded Mario Kart 64. I think the Gamecube also had a lot of quality, although it didn't have tons of games. The 2 Met

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[mqduck]

It had some good games, sure. Mario 64 is one of my favorite games of all time. But everything interesting was happening on the PSX (Resident Evil and Final Fantasy VII to give two examples) after the initial wave of N64 games. The reason for this was hardware. That's why I said the N64 itself sucked.

N64 sucked, PS1 sucked more

[LKM]

By today's standards, the N64 is a pretty sucky console, but really, there's no comparison to the suckiness of the PS1. The PS1 had two things in its favour: It was cheap, and games had a lot of storage space. Other than that, it was a mediocre console, especially compared to the N64 with the memory enhancement. The N64 had no loading time, came with an analog controller, had four controller ports, could display much better 3D graphics, had a rumble pack for the controller...

The N64 sucked, but not as badly

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[charizardpal]

Agreed> I was surprised when Nintendo decided to release the wii since they were sucking so bad last gen. Thought they'd run out of dough like Sega. The wii is selling quite a bit (which wasn't too surprising considering the price, image, little motion-detecting gimic, target audience, and lack of good competition-Sony is expensive, and Microsoft has few games.) I just didn't expect them to come out number one this gen based on their recent history and its a bit of a turn around...

Re:and I remember people talking of Nintendos Demi

[MeanderingMind]

I distinctly remember people talking about Nintendo following the Sega model and refocusing only on games. These people were not necessarily informed, but discussion did happen on a semi-regular basis across interested forums. I believe it peaked around the PSP's launch.

At the time the DS was moving slowly, and the PSP's launch was impressive. The "Revolution" was a long ways off, and its features pure speculation. Given they were last in the console market (by market share) and the PSP looked set to steal the handheld market at that time, threads hailing or lamenting the demise of Nintendo as a hardware company were not uncommon. Despite the Gamecube making pure profit, it was hard to imagine that Nintendo could continue making consoles if their market kept shrinking.

People also talked about the Xbox "vastly" outselling the Gamecube. Why? Fanboys of the time would cite specific regions, months, etc. to slant the facts. Just because it was wrong doesn't mean it wasn't spoken.

As a last note, the Gamecube and N64 profits were significant even if they may have been less than the Gameboy Advance (I'm not going to commit either way without numbers). Assuming a mere $1 profit was made on each console sold, that's $50 million in hardware sales. That's distributed over 10 years, but we're making about the harshest assumption possible about systems that were never sold at loss during their time; We're also ignoring software sales, accessories and licensing fees.

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[Wdomburg]

Um, something doesn't have to be true for people to talk about it. Plenty of people have claimed the XBox outsold the GameCube by a huge margin. They're just wrong (or exaggerating, depending on the person).

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[LKM]

I read more than a few articles and comments from people calling for Nintendo to do a Sega and become a third-party software developer after the Cube tanked. Actually, right up to E3 where people first got to play with the Wii...