Slashdot Mirror
DS Design = Nintendo Profits
There's nothing but good news in Nintendo's world right now, as the success of the DS leads to a more profitable financial year than they'd initially expected. From the article: "The company has re-estimated a net profit of 95 billion yen ($807 million) for the year ended March 31, compared with its previous forecast of $637 million. Last year the firm took £739 million." To get an idea of why the DS is so successful, Gamespot has a breakdown of an interview with the DS Engineers.
If Nintendo's making that much on the new DS, think about the Japanese vendors - DS-lites are so rare in Japan they're selling DS-lites at three to four times MSRP. They're even importing DS's from Europe and America to sell in Japan (at even higher costs).
Whoo, signature!
DesireCampbell.com
Nintendo's 3rd quarter earnings report has more details.
Weird as that is, you can't blame this currency cornucopia on the author of the write-up. Those are the numbers quoted in the article.
UK £739 million = US $1.28586 billion = ¥151.229965 billion.
new net profit estimate: $807million
previous net profit estimate: $637million
previous year: $1.29billion
I would actually guess the pound sign is actually supposed to be a dollar sign, which would indicate a small increase in profits from last year, versus a much larger decrease.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
There is ingame chat actually, via the mic. http://ds.ign.com/articles/697/697307p2.html For more information. Cheers.
I live outside of Osaka and I got my DS Lite a few weeks after launch (by stumbiling across a late shipment at Tsutaya). I got mine on a Friday night at 10 p.m. or so and there was a shelf full of Lites and old DSes. By the next afternoon there was 1 old-model, silver left.
The machine is a marvel. It's sexy like an Apple machine (it matches my iBook and iPod) but far more durable. It's like Apple aesthetics combined with Nintendo's "make-sure-it-takes-a-beating" engineering (indeed, their machines have been amazingly resilient and the DS Lite is no exception.
The prices of Lites are coming down (you can get a used one for the same price as a new one these days) but they are still somewhat hard to find, especially in places like Akihabara (I was there on vacation a few weeks ago and every store said they were sold out) and Den-Den Town in Osaka. I live out in the boonies (compared to Osaka proper, anyway), so I was able to snag one.
The games are great - some great Japan only titles like Dragon Quest Slime 2 and Jump and stuff like Animal Crossing. People here love this machine. I am hoping the Revolution will have the same kind of success.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
in the end Nintendo is usually posting profits for the year (their quarter profits are hit and miss though)
That's putting it a little lightly. Nintendo has only had one unprofitable quarter ever since going public, and has always been profitable for the year. That one quarter Nintendo was unprofitable was due to the US dollar dropping in value substantially compared to the Yen. Nintendo always invests profits in the currency it was earned in, which in the overall scheme limits their risk from currency fluctuations, even if it did hurt them that quarter.
Why not just use google itself?
God is dead -- Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead -- God
Zombie Nietzsche lives! -- Zombie Nietzsche
Googling "nintendo annual profit" gave a Bloomberg story http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&re fer=asia&sid=aKwSAyyfYBkM which reported this year's earnings (US$808 million) as 8.7 percent higher than last year. Which would make last year's profit US$738 million.
The pound symbol is indeed supposed to be a dollar sign.