It's illegal to bump, fyi. Also, this article is still total rubbish.

He's looking at Nintendo as an investor -this coming fiscal year is unlikely to show the same sort of increase as last year, which is like saying Jim Cameron's next Movie won't be as big as Titanic. There is no slight to Nintendo here, and the article really has little to do with what most of us are interested in (ie-the horse race).

Lets see will this year see a major dip in sales?

I highly doubt it with titles like WiiFit,MarioKart,SmashBros:Brawl all starting off the 1st Quarter I have very little doubt that Nintendo will see a dip in sales. Profits will likely be maintained if not exceeded this year thanks to the Balance Boards appearance as fresh hardware.

Don't forget we have no clue what Nintendo has instore for us this fall. For all we know their line-up could mirror the big fall line-ups of the last two falls. Donkey Kong, StarFox, Kid Icarus , Animal Crossing are all very real possibilities not to mention Nintendo Touch Generation games.

In the end I don't see Nintendo's profits dipping this year. They might begin to dip next year as this year is expected to be the generations peak year. Considering Nintendo hasn't made a hardware price cut in two falls and appears intent on not cutting the prices this year I expect to see profits continue to grow at a steady rate.

Hardware is getting cheaper, Microsoft has been able to reduce their hardware prices substantually and so has Sony. But Nintendo with the cheapest hardware that at launch according to EA and Sega only cost 170$ to manufacture hasn't cut its prices at all. I remember the GBA:Micro had a manufacture estimated price of 25$ a unit when it launched.

Nintendo is know for profiting off of its hardware despite strong competition. I believe Nintendo will maintain its current price untill the competition matches it. Even once the PS3 and 360 have matched the 279.99$ price tag I could still see Nintendo not budging. Though I think at that point a price cut will be neccesary! 

$279.99? Don't you mean $249.99? :p Ah well, in any case, Nintendo is and has always been raking in lot of profit. And as far as I can see, Neither PS3 nor Xbox360 will close the gap between themselves and the Wii, not as long as the Wii is selling like it does. :p

The author has made a fundamental mistake tand has it backwards. If we accept that the core customer for the HD consoles is a dedicated gamer we also need to recognize that they are also largely student age, high school and college and very young adult. In other words, many are dependent on part time work and other types of employment that traditionally get the axe quickest in hard times. Unemployment has always hit the young disproportionately. So no matter how ardent they are as gamers they may simply have no disposable income for video games.

The Wii apparently has a core of older adult males and parents buying them for their children. These are segments of the economy who are much more likely to have a job and although they will economize, most parents will sacrifice anything but their children’s happiness.

My take is that in an economic slowdown, Nintendo will fare better than the consoles dependent on the first to become unemployed.

......."Pookie!

*Pookie looks up*

Put another article in the garbage pile."

*Pookie throws paper into trash*

I just don't understand how I can know more about the industry than some paid professional. In order for the PS3 to catch up by the end of the year, Wii sales would have to drop 75% overnight and Sony would have to sell 1.8 million PS3's a month.

Since when does having less money make you buy the more expensive product? I'm shakin' my head....... I could roast this thing for days but why waste my time. I'd spend more time killing the article than the time it took the guy to actually think about it while he was writing it.