How much is Nintendo really worth? (Clue: very much)

oh noes! I already gave mine! Oh well. *goes back to playing Twilight Princess* ;D

tetris claimed too many lives as it was, help us sally struthers!!!!

...Wow. For perspective, how much is Sony worth? And how much did MS pay for Rare?

Wowza. The last figure that I had put them at about 6 billion in total assets. It always cracks me up when fanboys desperately assume that Nintendo will somehow fold up shack with it's console division and go the way of Sega. The fact is, Nintendo is far and away in better financial shape than the game divisions of either Sony or Microsoft.

with all that money you think they could have afforded to bring the specs of the wii up to par with the ps3 and xbox 360

Then why don't they buy some more decent developers so they can improve their game diversity?

Microsoft should buy nintendo

^^^
the whole reason Nintendo does so well is because they have more sense that simply "bringing up specs"

that happens naturally. nintendo puts out quality stuff with a very nice profit margin. they have made an art form out of making old tech new. thereby making more money off of that old tech.

all the while, games do not suffer. see the aforementioned "Twilllight Princess"

False idol, I name thee Nintendo. Wow. Inseparable? Ive never liked how people saw the wii as the bloody second coming, but that line just proves that Nintendo is just as absurd as the other 2.

@ Duck - 377 Million

I didn't know that the government takes that much money away...

Scott! Bite yer tongue, lad!

Someone, call a doctor, the boy's gone mad.

...and if Ninty started buying up developers, people would start complaining that there was no originality anymore.

Third Party developers are quite handy for not being restricted to a certain set of rules. While some aren't motivated enough to try at times, they do help with diversity.

...and rofl at Microsoft buying out Nintendo. XD

@ Duck (again) 377 million is how much rare was baught for, not how much Sony is worth.

@Crazylink
The profit is not all that is left after the tax men have taken their share. That is the total amount that is left over after all costs are paid.

For example, say it costs Nintendo $200 to build/market/develop a single Wii, and they sell it for $250, then they have just had $250 of sales but only $50 of profit. While taxes certainly account for a portion of the costs of staying in business, the government does not charge businesses 87% tax. How about a little better reporting Jonti?

And @Tom
The amount of money Nintendo has has nothing to do with the specs of the Wii. Nintendo set out to make a less powerful console with innovative controls and a lower price tag. Microsoft and Sony did the opposite. These are choices any company could make. If Alienware (before Dell bought them) decided to make the ultimate gaming console they could make something more powerful than PS3 and XBox 360 combined, regardless of the amount of money they happen to have on hand. The cost of the console would be through the roof (in my opion the PS3 and 360 prices are already through the roof), but they could do it.

Why not?
Fucking WoW has already claimed the lives of most of my friends.

Wow, take that times 2, and you've got how much Sony loses this year. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6160667.html

@5 ... your right nintendo's first party devs are not good they should get more...think of why they didn't think of losing RARE as a big deal, what did MS get from it? Perfect Dark? Metroid Prime is a much better game... Nintendo's first party devs are the best of the big 3, it's just what 3rd party devs do... it would be wiser to maybe ask Nintendo to purchase exclusivity rights to certain games, that way more games come to them only. You look at MS and PS3 , what first party devs do they have? Bungie (ie: Halo) and Naughty Dog (ie: jak and daxter/ratchet and clank)... I would suggest those companies to seek better first party devs before Nintendo does...

Is that building their main HQ in Kyoto? It looks like a prison.

Zac: I assumed that most people understood the difference between "sales" (which are nice) and "profits" (which are very nice) -- but then, my old man is an accountant... All the same, thanks for your insight.

carg0: That's the one. I've driven past the building in the early hours of the morning and there have still been lights on in most windows. Sometimes you can even see the shadows of NCL employees. Don't they have homes to go to?! Perhaps we should start a 'House the EAD' charity.

I believe it was the 2004-2005 fiscal year that only 5 billion Yen in net profit separated Nintendo and Sony (comes to some tens of millions of dollars). Admittedly, part of the reason was because PS made up for Sony's shortcomings in their other electronics sectors or the deifference would be wider, but still, not bad when comparing a games company to a global electronics manufacturer.
Some people, for whatever reason, will simply never like Nintendo. One minute, they say they should diversify; the next, it's, "Mario's in too many different game genres!" If Nintendo changes, they're accused of losing their way; if they stay the same, they're accused of being repetitive and stagnant.
It's funny how some think Nintendo is struggling. Put this in perspective: The GCN is more powerful than the PS2 and far more physically durable (both suggesting the GCN should be more expensive to manufacture), has always sold at a lower price, yet fetches Nintendo profit per unit while Sony takes losses on theirs; and Nintendo's supposed to be the one struggling! ROFL! Not that Sony is in debt as such; they make up for it in strong software sales. But the point here is that Nintendo has NO LOSS to reverse. This is a company that has NEVER posted a loss since the NES. And this is besides the stupid profits they're making on the wunderkind DS.
Like it or love it, Nintendo is the greatest games developer on the planet. The only companies that even compare are stellar 3rd party companies like Capcom.

If Nintendo puts out crappy consoles with kiddy games and still make a hefty profit, they must've done something right.

Sony and Microsoft should be thankful for their profitable divisions (ie. not gaming) to keep their conglomerates afloat.

Of course, the day Nintendo's gaming business become unprofitable, it's the day Nintendo goes out of business.

Nintendo should diversify into profit-making stuff like fast food, candy, sex toys etc

@20./mocax>>
Its funny you should say that... Nintendo has a taxi service and a chain of "Love Hotels" in its history. The more you know~

All that money and we got a gamecube with a remote?!! WTF!

Here is the last fiscal year of each company for reference...
Microsoft: 44 billion revenue, 12.5 billion profit
Sony: 63 billion revenue, 1 billion profit
Nintendo: 4.3 billion revenue, 0.8 billion profit

Roughly, Microsoft has a 28% profit margin, Sony has a 1.5% profit margin, and Nintendo has a 19% profit margin.

Impressive for Nintendo considering it only does games...although it must do that one thing right because it can't rely on other products to prop it up.

@Felkster

It would be interesting to see those figures for again, but for only the gaming divisions of Sony and Microsoft. People are always saying that the rest of the companies keep the gaming arms alive, but I have never seen actual numbers.

Anyone have the figures?

Sony and Microsoft don't show numbers like this because they're too busy trying to kill each other for marketshare. Nintendo, very deftly, swooped in and ate the remains of the market. Very smart - and it was done in such a way that everything they sell makes money (a unique concept in consoles, I know).

Personally, I think this is Sony's last console - if they can even afford to continue making it next year.

@felkster

Sonys figure is massively distorted because of the battery fiasco. They're taking a huge hit there but are still profitable. The company isnt in any sort of trouble though, because many of its divisions are back after years of lull. eg. digital cameras and tvs

@5: The problem with buying developers is that their best guys might decide to leave and the developing studio starts to suck, and Microsoft can only be tricked so many times to buy dud studios.

Felkster is correct, but here are some additional statistics.

Microsoft is worth 264 billion
Sony is worth 55 billion

Microsoft has 0 debt
Sony currently has 18 billion in debt

I'm not sure if anyone heard about this yet, but apparently Sony just recalled a number of Cyber-shot digital cameras made between 2003 and 2005. According to the release, Sony does not expect it to affect their bottomline. Of the 1 million cameras sold, approximately 4,000 may need repairs. This same type of recall also happened last year for other model cameras made by Sony. And Sony is also dealing with the massive laptop battery recall.

Don't be alarmist. Nintendo is a business, and not just any business, a japanese business. They all want to own the souls of the consumers. Making a big deal out of it is a waste of energy.

@7: They already tried. Nintendo said no.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=3920

Nintendo HQ looks like a hospital.

The correct answer is that the Nintendo HQ looks like a mint, because the DS and the first-party games are pretty much permission to print money.

Interestimg story, but realize that the article is citing "total net assets", this obviously includes many assets that are not liquid and not easily converted into real monies; manufacturing plants, patents, etc...

I would be more interested to see numbers for actual cash on hand, R&D monies and capital investment numbers.

Someone commented that Nintendo has a better financial picture than MS Game division, something that is pure folly since you cannot seperate MS in that manner. The Redmond giant is still sitting there with $60 billion in cash, and sits on the cusp of a major cash influx from Office/Vista/Exchange etc, in the next fiscal year. Let's not kid ourselves into the notion that those products and thier respective profits will not continue to subsidize and expand the games and media business for MS.

MP

What a rotten article! Jonti who? Still a life ruled by Nintendo wouldn't be too bad I feel.