Very impressed with Wii online

[Bodhesatva]

naznatips said:

Bodhesatva said:

ckmlb said:
Things can change as in companies go up and down.

If you only take market value as the measure of how big a company is then yes technically right now Nintendo is bigger than Sony.

Also they wouldn't spend a lot more on their consumers if they are trying to be as cost effective as they have been.

Right, I understood what you were saying. Things change. And again: that's true for any company at any time. Heck, the Bank of London, the second largest bank in the world, went bankrupt in the late 90s.

Right now, Nintendo is a larger company than the entirety of Sony.

Obviously Nintendo would spend on their consumers. Where do you expect this money to go Ck? I mean that honestly. They're raking in billions of dollars, while Sony and Microsoft lose billions. How would that money not ultimately be used on the consumer? What other purpose could it possibly serve?

Exactly, the money will be reinvested in big game development right away. There is a reason Nintendo is the best selling software company in the world. They will be right back into games. Some will go into developing the new DS (to be released in 3 years or so), some will go into the new Wii (expect development to start on this next year, and be released 3 years or so after that), but most of it will go into software development. Do you have any idea how much money Nintendo spends making their games? The amount of cash that's been poored into SSBB to hire on the best development team and composers is insane.

I agree, Naz, but I'm still just a little confused by all of this. Let's take a simple example.

Let's say Nintendo has made 1 billion dollars in profits this year. Simple, easy, number. They did this by being conservative and careful with their money -- or cheap, if you'd prefer.

Okay, so they have a billion dollars from being cheap. Now, what happens to that money? What do we imagine Nintendo will do with the money, exactly, if not reinvest the money back in to their company's infrastructure, be it development of new hardware, software, or something else?

I'm really not trying to be cheeky here, I just... I just don't understand what we are expecting. If Nintendo was running to the bank with their money, giving their CEOs huge paychecks and spending lavishly on their employees, sure, I'd agree that the money is being wasted, but that's precisely what we just agreed is not happening. Nintendo is conservative with their money, remember? That's what started this whole conversation. When a company makes money, that money is ultimately spent and reinvested into the company (Again, unless they're embezzling, which is what we've all agreed Nintendo is NOT doing).