By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Procrastinato on 28 December 2009
Edit Thread
RolStoppable said:
Procrastinato said:

Nintendo profits hugely from business external to consoles... i.e. other-media Pokemon, The Seattle Mariners (Nintendo owns a majority share) etc.

I always find it odd to compare those numbers directly to game division profits from Sony and MS. Pokemon has been a huge boon to Nintendo for the entirety of this, and last console generations. The Mariners are a huge sports franchise, and have been quite profitable for a long while. I believe the profits from all those sources are included in reported profits in the links above...

Isn't comparing those profits directly to console game divisions a bit... spin, in favor of Nintendo? Heck, Sony uses their game division to bolster their income for their disc licensing, blu-ray, UMD, & DVD disc and drive royalties, and disc manufacturing divisions as well (they "pay" other divisions for the goods/services/licenses, showing as a loss on the games division, and a gain for the other divisions) -- its just not as simple as the raw numbers make it seem.

In short, the GameCube was not as awesomely profitable as it first appears, from Nintendo's financials... as if that were Nintendo's only source of income during those periods.  Heck, the GBA alone would have dwarfed it, if the 'Cube was indeed profitable at all.

Both, Pokémon and the Mariners, have been around for a long time, but Nintendo's profits didn't skyrocket until recently. So it's common sense that the DS and Wii must be the main reasons for these huge profits. Even if you want to penalize Nintendo for profiting from more than just the DS and Wii, Nintendo still easily comes out on top when being compared to Sony's and Microsoft's gaming divisions (which neither actually has anymore, as both, the Xbox and PS brands, are lumped in with other devices).

Nobody is claiming that the GBA didn't bring in the majority of Nintendo's profits during the Gamecube era, but as long as there is no concrete evidence that the Gamecube lost money overall, people will obviously continue to believe that it was profitable.

I agree completely, Rol.

I was responding to the "look at Nintendo's profits, the GameCube was surely profitable" posts, however, not the blatent Wii/DS profits.  As you say, there's no way to know that it lost money for Nintendo... or by the same measure, garnered a profit.