Ken Kutaragi steps down

[Thorin]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2007-04-27T075548Z_01_T142436_RTRUKOC_0_US-SONY-PLAYSTATION.xml&pageNumber=0&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage3

Interesting read about Ken Kutaragi, but what really stuck out to me were the following two bits of information:

Nintendo, which entered the three-way console race in the underdog position, on Thursday stunned investors with a nearly eight-fold rise in quarterly operating profit and forecast stronger than expected growth for the year.

Really?  Wow!

While the game business has traditionally been a key revenue driver for Sony, the PS3 has thus far has weighed heavily on results.

Due mainly to hefty PS3 start-up costs, the game division is estimated to book a loss of more than $1.7 billion for the year ended March 31.

Ouch!

I would care if I invested in these companies - luckily I only care about how much the games cost me and whether they're fun or not.

[Thorin]

And here's an article describing Nintendo's rising fortunes: http://www.examiner.com/a-696029~Nintendo_1Q_Profits_Pumped_Up_by_Wii.html

Sales soared 90 percent to 966.53 billion yen ($8.13 billion) from 509.25 billion yen in the previous year, powered by brisk sales of its handheld DS machine and its wand-wielding Wii console, the Kyoto-based maker said in a statement.

Nintendo did not release fiscal fourth quarter figures. But subtracting nine-month profit from the full-year figure showed that the latest quarter's earnings rose almost sevenfold to 42 billion yen ($355 million) from 6.2 billion yen a year earlier. Quarterly sales almost tripled to 253 billion yen ($2.12 billion).
[..]
Nintendo said it sold 5.84 million Wii machines worldwide in the five months since its release late last year, 2.37 million in the Americas, and 2 million in Japan. The company said it expected to sell a further 14 million Wii units in the fiscal year ending in March 2008.
[..]
Nintendo predicts a 0.4 percent rise in group net profit to 175 billion yen ($1.47 billion) for the next fiscal year, with an 18 percent rise in sales to 1.14 trillion yen ($9.58 billion).