There is a very real chance that Sony could go under in the next 10 years but with the level of competition they face in their core business and their vulnerability to financial shocks given their high debt load and lot financial rating it is a risk.

Nintendo are a one trick pony. Their 3DS is suffering from increased competition as both Vita and mobile phones/tablets for the games market.

There are better investments than all 3 of these companies.

I'd invest in Apple, My Crow $oft and Google, because analysts clearly stated that due to all the iWhatever thingies capable of gaming, portable consoles are d0m3d, so Sony and Nintendo are d0m3d too!

Instead of learning their lessons from the PS3 and releasing a more affordable and profitable system, Sony essentially rereleases the exact same hardware again. The level of ineptitude displayed by the executive management shows us that Sony has nowhere to go but down. Microsoft is a much more viable stock option and it would be ludicrous not to purchase Nintendo stock now.

Nintendo at least is likely to rise in the short term but probably starting with quarterly reports further into 2012 (but then keep on rising, solidly but not explosively, into the next generation unless the Wii U is a total bust), and so long as you pay careful attention to currency rates, i'd say they're a fairly safe bet at the moment if you're willing to sit on it for 3 years

Sony is going to have to try something drastic soon, which could potentially win big or lead to their demise. You could buy $100 worth of shares and make it like a trip to the casino: invest knowing the money's likely going down the tubes, but that you have an outside shot at seeing it really grow

But don't keep those Ninty shares too long, they're d0m3d!!!

And go back in time and buy Google!

Go back in time and buy %50 of apple

I believe all three companies have a bleak future. The following statement is coming from my own personal beliefs so please do not rage at me if you don't agree with me.

Nintendo 3ds initially flopping and then after getting a huge pricecut causing it to be sold at a loss, it rebound decently, and then getting a bunch of discounts and deals for sales to explode during the holidays. The ds didn't get a pricecut for a very long time and at least here in the United States, it was sold out every holiday without any further holiday discounts and deals. If software doesn't sell well and I mean nonbundled software "cough cough mario 3ds land, zelda OOT, and nintendogs, then nintendo is just throwing away money with each 3ds sold. I do not think nintendo can afford to have their gaming devision lose money for even 2 year like microsft and sony are able to. Wii U is a radical new idea that nintendo themselves said is only suppose to appeal to the tech junkies. Nintendo has fallen from grace before. I think it will happen again with the wii u, so I think nintendo is a bad option.

Sony, vita's huge drop week 2 in Japan is concerning considering even the 250$ 3ds held up much better then that in Japan on a nonholiday month and Japan has become psp's biggest market in recent years. What also worries me is that a lot of people bought the original psp for movie and music playback, with gaming as a nice little bonus hence the terrible tie ratio even compared to other commonly pirated on devices. All those people now have smartphones and itouches. I think the psvita will sell much worse than the psp. On the bright side the ps3 is selling better than ever and the ps2 is still selling decently. On the not so bright side everything else sony makes seems to be losing marketshare. Not enough is known about the ps4 for me to have an opinion on it.

Microsoft is also a big risk. The dedicated desktop is slowly dieing and I think eventually its only customers will soon be dedicated gamers, and powerhouse users. I personally think tablets are just a fad and people will return to the far more convinient laptops soon, but if they don't, and windows 8 tablets fail to gain an audience, then microsoft is in big trouble, considering no computers means no microsoft office sales which is their other big money maker. Their windows 7 phone startup despite huge marketing campaigns and good reviews is failing. Their only product that seems to be performing well is the xbox 360, and that accounts for such a tiny amount of their revenue that its almost irrelevent.  With microsoft it doesn't matter if their next xbox is a smashing hit, or a huge flop, unless they gain traction on the dominant computing platform, or customers return to PCs, they are screwed.

MS no as it's unlikely to return much even though it's hardly a risky option.

Sony no as the company is struggling and while it could be a decent long to mid term return it's fairly risky.

Nintendo no as while 3DS will do well I think Wii U won't be the hit the Wii was and I doubt the short to mid return would be that good.

In short - probably better options for investment around than these three.

On Nintendo, they are still sitting on a huge pile of cash and could afford a good deal of damage before they actually start going into debt. 3DS will get profitable when production volume brings costs down (which may be occurring since they are hitting a pretty nice volume already), and software sales are picking up neatly enough between Mario Kart, OoT 3D posts good numbers, and Mario 3D Land. The harder part is the part Nintendo has no control over: currency, and that is why you see a strategy with the 3DS designed to stack up Japanese third party support, making them money with actual worth which will help them more.

As for Microsoft, Office sales are not going to go away just because people like tablets. The business world is still predicated upon a desktop or laptop for every cubicle, and while pads and such find their way in, they are supplementary and do not serve as a replacement. Microsoft is trying to fight their way into that market (or moreso than they have already), but are reasonably secure in the other for the foreseeable future

I just got done with economics at school and my teacher always said the same thing: higher the risk, higher the reward. Now thats not always the case but there is some truth to it. Don't buy into stock that has nothing that will stimulate it. If the rumors are true about microsoft announcing a new console at E3 2012 then it might be worth it to buy into there stock because chances are there stock will rise a good amount if the announcement is well received. The same goes for sony. Its best, i think, to strategically plan when and what stocks you will buy into. Especially since they are so cheap right now, you won't lose much money if you only put in maybe $100-$200.