SCEI boss Kaz Hirai provided some new numbers for the gaming masses to look at and commence with the "wow," "um," "huh," and "yay?"

Peering into the abyss that is a collection of PowerPoint slides, we've concluded a couple of things. First, PS3 is hurtin' for games, with a mere 475 having been released in total at the outset of FY07. Second, PS3 is certainly selling a lot better. Here's how things look on whole.

In light of all the important news coming out of Take-Two's just-released financial report, it would be easy to skim over the actual financial numbers at the core of the release. That would be a shame for Take-Two, as the report shows incredible growth for the company when compared to last year.

Quarterly revenues were up a staggering 163% year over year, from $205.4 million to $539.8 million, mainly on the strength of Grand Theft Auto IV (and not on the strength of titles like Go Diego Go! Safari Rescue). These revenues were enough to turn a loss of $29.2 million during last year's second quarter into a profit of nearly $115.4 million during this year. The company's coffers have ballooned to include nearly $1.1 billion in assets, up from $830 million at the end of the last fiscal year in October.

The report also reveals that 2008 might finally be the year that the PS2 finally starts its slow decline, at least from Take-Two's perspective. At this time last year, 37% of Take Two's revenues (a plurality) came from PS2 games. This year, that ratio is down to 10%, while the Xbox 360 and PS3 shot up to 41% and 31% of revenues, respectively. The company only has one PS2 game listed on tap for the rest of the year: MLB Power Pros 2008.

As part of Take-Two's glowing second quarter financials, the publisher confirmed that Grand Theft Auto IV has been flying off shelves (GASP!), announcing that as of May 31, more than 11 million copies "have been sold in to retailers," while nearly 8.5 million units "have been sold through to consumers."

Take-Two further puffed out its financial chest this afternoon concerning the high profile title, boasting that GTAIV surpassed all-time entertainment records for day one and week one sales, selling about 6 million units worldwide and filling company wallets with more than $500 million in its debut week.

Square Enix, protector of the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest bloodlines, reported revenue was down for its last fiscal year ending March 31. Don't worry, Square Enix isn't going to go all Aeris, the company still saw solid revenues and profits, but sales were down about 10% to $1.43 billion, while operating income was down 17% to $208 million.

Sales across Square Enix's various divisions were all down (Offline games down 19%, Online games down 11% and Mobile down 15%). For this fiscal year ending next March, SE expects $1.54 billion in sales. Although we're not even going to guess when Final Fantasy XIII is coming out, Square Enix does have some titles lined up this year with Infinite Undiscovery' s release in September and schedule Dragon Quest remakes.

Nintendo announced today that it saw a 73% increase in sales this past year and profits of over $4.77 billion, which is a 115% increase over last year. It appears Nintendo forecasted conservatively and is going to need a bigger money bin. The company also states it plans to ship 25 million Wii consoles to retailers across the globe in FY09, approximately the same amount it shipped in FY08, which ended March 31. If Nintendo continues its Wii sales rampage, that means by April of 2009 there could be 50 million Wii consoles in homes.

The Nintendo DS isn't doing badly either, with 70.6 million units sold, and expected shipments of another 28 million units this fiscal year. Nintendo reveals that the global tie ratio for software on Wii is 6.07, while the DS enjoys a 5.24. The company expects an 8.8% operating profit increase in FY09 to $5.14 billion -- that's probably being conservative, again.

[Via GameDaily]

Activision says Santa's going to be good to the company this year and has raised its financial expectations for the quarter and full fiscal year ending in March. Activision increased its full year net revenue by $150 million dollars to $2.45 billion, which includes costs associated with the Vivendi merger.

Activision CEO Robert Kotick notes that the company increased its market share to 16.8%, a 7.9% rally over last year. If there's any questions as to how, just look at NPD sales for November. Both Call of Duty 4 and Guitar Hero III are making this holiday season green for Activision -- plus, the company wouldn't mind squeezing just a little bit more cash before the year is done.

Take-Two's Q4 fiscal results were met with rapture thanks to 2K Boston's BioShock. GameDaily reports the title has shipped 2 million units globally and helped increase the company's net revenue an extra $30 million from Q4 '06 to $292.6 million. Formerly fiscally-challenged Take-Two decreased their net loss from $14 million last Q4 to $7.1 million. For the full financial year the company saw $981.8 million in net revenue and $138.4 million in net losses -- down from $184.9 million in fiscal '06.

Take-Two saw successes beyond BioShock, crediting NBA 2K8, the Grand Theft Auto series and *groan* Carnival Games. Take-Two expects this fiscal year ending at the end of Oct. '08 to be a banner year. Projected net revenue is $1.1 to $1.4 billion thanks to a wide selection of games, no doubt highlighted by next year's guaranteed mega-hit: Grand Theft Auto IV.

At this very moment in the town of Couer d'Couers, Ned, the pie maker, with the gift to bring the dead back to life for a short time (without consequences) stood over the body of Atari. The facts were these: The company of Atari was 35 years, 16 weeks, 4 hours and 9 minutes old. After already posting a $70 million loss in the last fiscal year, firing most of its board, borrowing $10 million and now reporting a $12 million loss for Q1, it was believed Atari had finally expired. But, just as the pie maker was about to touch the body -- to bring it back to life ever so briefly -- and ask where Atari stashed the will revealing its alleged secret fortune, a wholly unexpected thing happened. Atari popped up from the table and exclaimed, "I'm not dead yet!" And so, the startled pie maker left the morgue still trying to catch his breath, knowing he'd return soon enough.

Atari finally filed their delayed financial report for the quarter ending June 30 and laid out the bad news that they're down another $12 million. The company already sold most of its franchises like Stuntman and Driver; they're also in a dispute about potentially losing their Dragon Ball Z license as well. According to the quarterly report Atari states "substantial doubt about [their] ability to continue as a going concern."

Activision posted financial results for its second quarter ending September 30th, highlighting a 69% increase in revenues over the same quarter from last year -- an improvement of $318 million. The publisher's net income was only $700,000, better than the $24 million loss experience this time last year. And yes, it can thank Guitar Hero for most of it, now and in the future.

The Q2 results were driven by Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and (unfortunately) Transformers. Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision, says that the quarter saw net revenues at their highest in the "company's history." Now, as nice as Q2 was, Q3 is expected to be a show stopper. Revenues are expected to break $1 billion due to the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and the buzz surrounding Call of Duty 4.

If Atari's financial woes weren't already a beacon that the legendary game company has fallen far, their notice of potential delisting from the Nasdaq stock exchange should pretty much seal the deal. Atari received the notice from Nasdaq because they did not file their financial report for their fiscal year ending March 31.

Atari says they haven't filed yet because they're still trying to figure out what accounting entries they need to make. With any luck The Witcher and Alone in the Dark will help the company out this fiscal year. Heck, for all we know, My Horse & Me could be Atari's killer application which will help them ride into the land of fiscal fortitude.

If you've been following our Japanese hardware sales series, or caught last month's NPD report, or have a pulse and leave the house, you've no doubt heard that Nintendo's DS and Wii consoles are ... well, they're sort of a big deal. How big a deal? The pair are responsible for Nintendo's "record high" fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2007. The stats:

• consolidated fiscal year revenues of ¥966.5 billion, a 90% increase
• operating profits of ¥226.0 billion, a 150% increase
• 23 million Nintendo DS consoles last year, lifetime sales of 40 million
  
• 5.84 million Wii consoles in less than five months, "nearly" 29 million Wii games

Now for the projections for the fiscal year which began April 1, 2007:

• consolidated sales increasing nearly 18% to ¥1.14 trillion
• operating profits growing nearly 20% to ¥270 billion
• 22 million Nintendo DS systems and 130 million games
• 14 million Wii systems and 55 million games worldwide (will that be enough?)

Not quite the mom 'n pop outfit, are they? We're gonna need a "THEY PRINT MONEY!!!" graphic for these sort of things going forward.

A report on Next Generation lays out Gamestop's financial performance for the fiscal year 2006. Needless to say, the world of game retail is as lucrative as ever, even if Gamestop has been making every effort to diminish it in size for consumers. Full-year sales experienced a surge of 72%, from $3.1 billion to $5.3 billion. Out of that, annual net earnings for the year, ending February 3, rose to an impressive $158.3 million, while operating income went up to $334 million.

Furthermore, Gamestop has expressed plans to open between 500 and 550 more stores worldwide. The group is counting on a strong first quarter in 2007, powered by the likes God of War II, the Pokémon franchise and several Xbox 360 titles. With so much economic momentum, don't expect Gamestop to roll over and change their questionable pre-owned game prices or their definition of "new" anytime soon.

Yesterday's Bloomberg prediction that the PS3 would drag down Sony profits 50 percent turned out to be a little lofty. While the company's games division did show a withering 54.2 billion yen (about $446 million) loss for the quarter ending Dec. 31 (down from a 67.8 billion yen/$558 million profit in 2005), strong sales of Bravia TVs and other Sony electronics meant the company as a whole showed only a modest five percent decrease in profits for the quarter, year over year.

Sony blamed the weak game unit performance on the massive costs associated with rolling out the PS3 and selling it at a substantial loss. Slowing sales for the PSP also hurt the bottom line, Sony said. Despite the bad news, the company actually raised their profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31. Still, unless Sony can find another quick-selling "champion product" along the lines of the PS2, Sony's bottom line may be continuing in this same direction for a while.

Recent financial figures released by Kyoto's most successful hanafuda manufacturer explain just how sickeningly rich the company is. NCL's total net assets as of September 30th, 2006 stand at US$10.86 billion. Do you know how many Rares you could buy for that? Too many!

Nintendo's net sales (nothing to do with this here internet) for this fiscal year, which ends on March 31st, 2007, are forecast to be US$6.378 billion, while net profits (after the taxmen have taken their pieces of the sumptuous pie) for this financial year are expected to total US$862 million. That's quite a lot of money.

According to a statement released by Nintendo of Japan's accountants, which we've partially emboldened for scary effect:

"In order to expand gaming population in the console business as well, Nintendo will aim to popularize "Wii" (the latest video gaming console to be launched at the end of the calendar year) as an "everyday-use gaming device for all the family" allowing the new emergence of gaming console inseparable from daily lives, under the concept of "brand new days with Wii". As for handheld gaming market, Nintendo will continue to strive to gain more popularity with an expansion in software lineup by launching new types of games that expand user base such as "Touch! Generations" as well as easy accesible games to challenging games in due proportion."

Key phrase there, if we've read it correctly, is "inseparable from daily lives." The message is clear and just a bit frightening, dear readers: Nintendo wants your life!

Read (.pdf) -- Nintendo.co.jp financial statement