Ok... this conversation is stemming from that Microsoft PR rep's diss against the Wii (Third party games don't sell) comment thread on Kotaku. It's completely full of miss information and most people have the idea that Nintendo charge's third parties way more then Sony or Microsoft do which is obviously not true.

As to answer the question the way it's worded, Yes Nintendo makes way more money then anyone else in the games business. They do this by having 2 very successful platforms where they have a great outlet for selling their 1st party games on. The systems they have out right now are breaking all sorts of sales records. The DS is breaking game sales records and the Wii is breaking Hardware sales records that the DS laid out. When your system is the most successful and you have a very healthy 1st and 3rd party sales market, plus a healthy profit margin on hardware, you'll end up making more profit then anyone else. Nintendo is great at doing this.

Ah ok rol, I don't know though, 360 is a good console that has had some major releases this year (halo 3, CoD4, lost planet etc...) but I think here in the UK it is popular and all my mates have one so it may just be because I see them all the time. Either way it is beating PS3 I reckon, thats one expensive machine to produce there.

Even if Nintendo sold no software and licenced no 3rd party titles they would make a profit. They are the only console manufacturer that always makes money on their console sales.

Then you add in huge 1st part sales numbers and some decent 3rd party volume and I wouldn't doubt it.

 Good [anti-]point.

Nintendo just has their business model right.

- They expect the worst case scenario, so when they get it, they profit (Gamecube)

- They have a more loyal audience than any other manufacturer due to the vertical monopoly in their segment. It's impossible to buy a Sony or Microsoft console and just play first-party games with solely first-party add-ons and downloads.

- They are slightly behind the cutting edge in the areas they can afford to be. Beyond Wii-power, each 10% increase in graphics quality or CPU power (arbitrary units) probably increases the price of that component by 50%.

- By having a large back catalogue of classic games and IP, they can repeatedly reuse and expand old games for new audiences. 

-  They aim at a much wider potential audience, so even if only a small fraction are convinced that adds up to a lot of sales. Other companies aim at the small but informed and vocal 'core' gamer audience which is practically saturated with AAA shooter and RPG games already.

- They are a software comapny and they know it. The hardware is designed by first-party developer input as well as hardware experts.

- They realised you've got to sell the experience, not the game. You see people playing games together in adverts.

Take-Two is most definitely NOT doing well this year; we just had a thread here discussing their financial problems. The company just doesn't allocate its development resources well. Almost all of their efforts have been going into the least-profitable platforms (PSP, PS3, and 360) while ignoring the most-profitable ones (DS, Wii, PS2). Even with a hit game like Bioshock, you're not going to make money putting 3 games on the DS and 14 games on the PSP.

And, just for the record, EA is having an absolutely terrible year. They're going to post an overall net loss this year for the first time in almost a decade. (I've been predicting this for months now, and it's definitely going to come true.) Madden sales were way down compared to last year (~25% lower), while their Need For Speed and Medal of Honor franchises are just shadows of their former selves. EA used to dominate the software charts in America, but this year they've been upstaged by Nintendo and Activision. EA's heavy commitment to the 360 and PS3 has seen their development costs skyrocket, while their revenue has flatlined. It's not a healthy combination. I'm sure that EA will bounce back (they always do), but not this year.

If you took Nintendo out of the picture, added up all of the profits and all of the losses for all of the other companies in the industry, I'm not too sure the industry would turn a profit overall ...

 lol, there is a good chance that is true.   i just want to point out that nintendo was predicting this would happen for years.  everyone said nintendo was crazy, the gaming industry is doing great.  in the end, nintedo was right.  got to love hindsight. xD

I wonder if nintendo is making more money/profit than sony as a whole?

Of course not leo-j, Sony is in much more than video games. I think you know that, you're just baiting the rest of us .

 i looked it up quick and i'm seeing sony post $825M for Q1 and $790m Q2 profits.  So a quick and easy estimate of $800M x4 would come out to $3.2 Billion for the year.

for nintedo Q2 was $755M. I couldn't find a Q1 but they are forcasting $3.1 Billion by the end of the financial year.

considering nintendo is ussually conservative in their estimates....i think nintendo just might have a chance to  be more profitable then sony.  regardless of who's on top it ought to be close though.