Just as I predicted, a blowout!!!
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&sid=akRk2Ih_aJy4&refer=asia
Nintendo's First-Quarter Profit Rises Fivefold on Wii, DS Sales
By Pavel Alpeyev
July 25 (Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co., the world's biggest maker of handheld game players, said first-quarter profit rose fivefold as the Wii console widened its sales lead over Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3.
Net income climbed to 80.3 billion yen ($668 million) in the three months ended June 30, from 15.6 billion yen a year earlier, the Kyoto, Japan-based company said in a release today. Sales, driven by the DS portable and the ``Mario'' games series, more than doubled to 340.4 billion yen from 130.9 billion yen.
Nintendo, whose market value doubled last year, plans to build on the success of the Wii's motion-sensor remote controller with new products including a steering wheel and exercise pad. Sony earlier this month offered a discount on the PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp. said it's considering a price cut for the Xbox 360 to catch up with Nintendo.
``Nintendo continues to knock the cover off the ball in the video-game market,'' Daniel Ernst, a New York-based analyst at Soleil Securities Corp. with a ``buy'' rating, said prior to the earnings release. ``Nintendo not only creates great hardware that is low-cost to make and easy to play, but also great software.''
Earnings were also boosted by the weaker yen. The Japanese currency averaged 120.50 to the dollar in the quarter, weakening from 116.11 yen a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data. Against the euro, the yen traded at an average 162.08 yen, compared with 144.56 yen a year earlier.
Six of the top 10 selling games in the U.S. in June were made for Nintendo's game systems, with ``Mario Party 8'' leading the pack, according to NPD Group Inc.
Demand for the Wii will probably continue to exceed supply this Christmas season, Nintendo said earlier this month.
