Nintendo Q109 results drown company in billions

[wraggster]

"It prints money" just isn't going to cut it anymore in conveying Nintendo's cash flow. The House of Mario announced today that in its first quarter the company brought in $993 million (+34%) in profit! Net sales were up 24% to $3.91 billion. The company sold 5.17 million Wii consoles globally (+50%) and 6.94 million DS units, which means the total lifetime sales of the units are 29.62 million and 77.54 million units for the Wii and DS, respectively.

In the software department, Mario Kart Wii drove away with 6.42 million units sold and Wii Fit continued its quest to save the Fat Princesses with 3.42 million units in people's homes -- more than likely collecting dust, along with the Bowflex and Thighmaster. Nintendo maintains its forecast of reaching a net profit of $3.04 billion and operating profit of $4.97 billion by the end of its fiscal year in March '09.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/30/ni...y-in-billions/

[Kulawend]

I think it is more then obvious (based on these figures) that flash cartages are not significantly harming Nintendo's profits.

[Epic Pie]

I think it is more then obvious (based on these figures) that flash cartages are not significantly harming Nintendo's profits.

Word. Another thing is while I was at E3 a little whiles back I was talking to this guy just finished talking with the Nintendo representative and he told me that Nintendo is going to release a patch through Nintendo DS download station wherever they may be located or through the Wii DS Download Station and it will upgrade your DS but will disable it to run pirated games and possible homebrew.

[spinal_cord]

Word. Another thing is while I was at E3 a little whiles back I was talking to this guy just finished talking with the Nintendo representative and he told me that Nintendo is going to release a patch through Nintendo DS download station wherever they may be located or through the Wii DS Download Station and it will upgrade your DS but will disable it to run pirated games and possible homebrew.

So why would any pirate persosly download this patch and stop themeslves from playing the games they copy?

Nintendo - "Please install this firmware patch on your DS to stop yourself from playing copied games."
Pirate - "Sure big N, as you aked so nicely will purposfully prevent myself from doing what i so love to do."
Nintendo - "Thankyou very much."

[policrat]

If that's the case, the firmware patch will probably deal out a raft of things that the company still have under their control, and will become inaccessible or limited for those who don't submit. Like their wifi services, or anything else planned.

Perhaps a super-improved frontend that will give everyone grief and endless patches for the remainder of the system's days.

[Epic Pie]

Im waiting to see what the patch will be so I can code a firmware patch for my DS so i'll still be able to play some of my pirated games.

[JKKDARK]

I am glad to see Nintendo doing so well in the numbers. I am sure they are going to win this generation finally

[kurosakinaruto-]

lol i dont have a wifi connection anyways w/e, btw that's a pretty smart idea though.... a must firmware patch or you can't go on wifi or w/e else. I'm pretty sure it'll fail though, since sony tried to do mandatory firmware patches a while ago, and it dropped sales, so they didn't do it nemore

[geise69]

Not to preach, but priating games doesn't really hurt the big N. Yeah they get royalties off of games but it hurts the little developer of game X. It's one reason so many small game dev houses are closing their doors. It's also a reason certain people have to find jobs. Game X didn't sell well so the dev team is let go. I'm in this business and that's how it happens some times. Nothing like coming in from a lunch break and everyone is in the break room being told they're letting them go. Now it might be becase the game was $#@!, or it might be because it was pirated a lot. Just depends.

[Kulawend]

A few questions running through my head:
1. What will happen to a DS that's flashed when the patch is run?
2. Will the patch be compatible with both the lite and the original DS?
3. How many bricked DS's will have to be fixed by Nintendo from not being updated correctly?