I don't understand most of this, but I appreciate your hard work.

Great work as always and a good read. How much extra data are you able to derive from Nintendo statements about quarterly gains and decreases in major expense categories such as marketing, R&D, and so on? I'm curious what Nintendo's R&D expenditures look like given the technology in the Wii was dated when it was built.

@kn

ill do it tomorrow.
but i know i saw the R&D number, and if i remember correctly, it was quite small.

@kn

R&D , Sales & Marketing costs as follows:

FY Mar 2007
R&D = 37,725 or approx. US$322 million
Sales & Marketing = 82,339 or US$703 million

FY Mar 2008
R&D = 37,001 or approx. US$323 million
Sales & Marketing = 113,977 or US$997 million

So Nintendo spends more in marketing than in R&D.
I'm not sure if that's good or bad.

But Nintendo results speak for themselves.

Whoa, I'd never guess they were spending $320+ million per year on R&D.

Where did you get these numbers?

maybe R&D involves designing new accessories, etc.

not just new console, or motion control or stuff like that.

as a %age of revenue, its only about 2 to 3%

Whereas MSFT spends about 15% of revenue on R&D

I just meant to ask if those numbers are explicitly in the reports. I never noticed them.

From Nintendo FY Mar 2008 financial statements.

The higher number is the published number in millions of yen.

The US$ figure is derived from the average exchange rate - based on Nintendo's financials.

117.02 For FY end Mar 07

114.28 for FY end Mar 08

source: Nintendo Consolidated Financial Statements (dated Apr 24, 2008) - pg. 21

Which specific numbers are you asking about?  I can explain if you let me know.