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Nintendo Profits Up 72%, Sony's Down 94%
Gamasutra is reporting on reporting, with financial information from some of the large gaming companies becoming available this week. Nintendo, who had already previously raised projections, saw their profits up 72% over last year. This dramatic increase was credited largely to the DS, with 10.9 million units sold in the first six months of this year alone. Sony, on the other hand, dropped profits by 94% over this time last year. The company attributes this largely to the battery recall and PS3 start-up costs. From the article: "The company's games division reported a ¥43.5 billion ($366.6m) loss, from a ¥8.2 million ($69,000) profit in 2005, thanks to research and development, manufacturing and marketing costs related to the launch of the PlayStation 3. Sales and operating revenue were down by 20.5 percent to ¥170.3 billion ($1.43bn). A decrease in hardware sales worldwide was attributed to a drop in price for the PlayStation 2 and PSP. Software sales also decreased overall, although individual PSP sales were up on the previous year. Combined profit from the PS2 and PSP business was described as 'relatively unchanged'."
As noted in other responses, the current numbers reflect huge one-time costs for Sony which should start to see good returns in the next quarter.
Can't we all just be happy that both companies are going to succeed? Why is this a war at all? The world needs Nintendo, and so shall it be. But Sony has a lot to offer as well and so do the Japanese game makers that flock to the Sony console... and this round the PS3 is region free for games.
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