In both of their earnings reports, both Sony and Nintendo forcaseted future yen to be in the mid 100 for the euro and around 80 for the US dollar, today, after rising during most of the spring, those levels have been broken on the downside (Yen is getting stronger).  Meaning if they stay where they are or go lower (which is most likely the case with the Greece crisis), you can throw away their forcasts for the upcoming year.

Currently: 100 Yen/Euro, 79 Yen/USD

31 March 110 Yen/Euro, 84 Yen/USD

Sony &Nintendo projection FY13 (Both the same): 105 Yen/Euro 80 Yen/USD

suck it japan, that's what you get for .. um .. nope, no clue why the yen in soo strong.

What this means is higher price points and real trouble, especially for Sony. (i say this about Sony because of its overall worse state and its traditional strength in Europe).

Mike from Morgan town

PS -- The title of the OP is misleading because the issue is the Yen is rising, not falling. Hence it has a high relative value

Nintendon't?

Both Nintendo and Sony Count Europe as their largest market and both receive ~70 of their revenue outside Japan, so no one company is at a worse state when it comes to exchange rates

When ever the yen rises or falls aganist the euro or dollar its the inverse, so Yen trading below implies that its getting stronger.

The world is just ripping Sony a new one everyway possible...

OK. The OP title was confusing to me.

But as for markets. Nintendo has sold more Wiis and 3DSes in North America while Sony has sold more PS3s in Europe.

Europe may be a bigger market but NoA tends to sell more than NoE (or Europeans like Sony more).

It is a very strange phenomenon. Yen interest rates have been at near-zero for almost a decade and the Japanese economy hasn't been something worth betting on in 2 decades. You would figure the bad situation of Japanese exporters would weaken the Yen enough to make their situation not so bad, but i suppose it's just major investors' fears about the Euro, Pound Sterling, and Dollar that keep their money in Yen.

The Japanese have a lot of demand for currency as an almost cultural predilection, meaning that they keep a lot of their assets in cold, out-of-the-bank cash, which i suppose raises demand for the currency sort of artificially. Much of Japan's economic problems come from the fact that their high savings rates, which helped finance the Japanese rise to prominence in the first place, are now hindering growth and hurting exports.