Nintendo posts $456.6 million profit

Massive DS sales boost six-month net income by 48 percent; overall sales up to 69 percent, but outlook remains unchanged.

Although the Wii won't be on sale for weeks, Nintendo is already enjoying robust financial numbers. Today in Tokyo, the company reported a 54.4 billion yen (around $459.5 million) profit for the first half of its fiscal year, which ended on September 30.

The figure is a 48 percent increase from the 36.63 billion yen (approximately $309.2 million) the company reported during the same period the prior year. The Kyoto-based game giant rang up 298.82 billion yen (approx. $2.52 billion) in overall six-month sales, a massive 69 percent increase from the 176.36 billion yen (around 1.49 billion) it took in from April-September 2005.

To anyone following the game industry, the reason for Nintendo's success will be unsurprising. The company announced it has sold more than 10 million units of its DS handheld this year, a trend which accelerated after the sleeker DS Lite was released this spring. So far, the company has sold 26.82 million units of the DS and DS Lite since the platform debuted in late 2004.

Brisk sales of DS hardware translated to brisk sales of DS software. New Super Mario Bros. has sold 6.76 million units worldwide since it went on sale in May. Another popular game, Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day, sold 4.59 million units during the April-September period--bringing its lifetime sales total to 8.51 million units. The game hit Japan in May 2005, arrived on US store shelves in mid-April 2006, and came to Europe in June 2006.

Despite its surging sales, Nintendo's full-year outlook remains the same since it revised the figure upwards three weeks ago. The Mario factory now predicts its net profit for its entire business year, which ends on March 31, 2007, will be 100 billion yen (about $850 million), a 20.5 percent increase from its previous estimate of 83 billion yen (about $705 million).

310 Comments

  • Yadiel2007

    Posted Dec 18, 2006 1:53 pm PT

    Go Nintendo! It's your birthday! Wii gonna party like it's your birthday!

  • rocklee111

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 6:49 pm PT

    nintendo is the best at getting a proffit......

  • happyfaceboy

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 4:13 pm PT

    Nintendo - almost over 500 million

    and Sony...well...umm...yah :p

  • chickmagnet_1

    Posted Nov 26, 2006 3:59 pm PT

    ScottWevers
    truelove79
    "But Nintendo is for kiddies right? There must be a lot of kiddies out there buying up all Nintendo has to offer."


    Then I must be a 27 year old kiddie, 'cause I support Nintendo all the way...

    seriously though, this kind of attitude doesn't hold up so well. See, I was a gamer long before Sony and Microsoft had their hands in consoles... sure it looks like big N got a little unnerved when the other big 2 stole their thunder in the last console wars, but it looks like they're back in their element again with the DS and the soon to be released Wii. They will be turning heads again, don't you doubt

    I agree. I have been gaming LONG before Sony and Microsoft entered the race. As a matter of fact, I think my first system was an Atari 2600. Then it was on to Nintendo. Most of the best years in gaming were when Nintendo was kickin it. It was also great when Sega came around. This past generation of gaming was pretty great too. The current generation I'm not too impressed with though. The thing that does impress me is the Wii. Nintendo is known for innovation. Where the other companies are known for "more power" aka the Tim "the tool man" Taylor complex, Nintendo smacks us with something new that we haven't experienced yet. I too am 27, and am growing tired of the standard control method of gaming. It has seen too many reiterations. It is time for something new. So I salute Nintendo for making strides. Hopefully, they will lead us into the "virtual reality" machine of the future. Or at least, hopefully someone will. But I'm rooting for Nintendo to do it, since they are able to keep the cost down. (Although I wish that the Wii wasn't $250. That is still sort of high)

  • insanewolfninja

    Posted Nov 24, 2006 4:03 pm PT

    well the way the wii is going I am excpecting it to gt these numbers.

  • iceuk

    Posted Nov 23, 2006 10:31 am PT

    Wow, they still sell this stuff

  • KittyKatLaura12

    Posted Nov 23, 2006 2:20 am PT

    Hey... Nintendo... yeah... so, can I have a job?

  • deepdreamer256

    Posted Nov 22, 2006 2:34 pm PT

    Who doesn't like the DS. Then again, everyone I talk to hate's the Wii - hmm, that or The Longest Journey, GC twilight princess, Okami, yoshis island 2.
    I think I'll go for the latter >_>

  • buckincrazy

    Posted Nov 22, 2006 9:27 am PT

    well put ScottWevers! I'm a 23 year old kiddie myself.
    Nintendo owns!!!

  • Ratchetbuddy101

    Posted Nov 18, 2006 8:38 pm PT

  • paul_eku

    Posted Nov 15, 2006 6:44 pm PT

    Step 1: Make Nintendo Products
    Step 2?
    Step 3: Profit!!

    Sellin those things like hotcakes! Funny thing is Nintendo will be making profit out of the box off of every Wii, so this is gonna increase exponentially very very soon.

  • gdsmck954

    Posted Nov 15, 2006 4:14 pm PT

    Hopefully these numbers are similar to the numbers we see with the Wii.

  • Veneratedx

    Posted Nov 15, 2006 11:15 am PT

    wow whoever said nintendo is for the kiddies is dumb. most people in my school own ps2 and xbox and dont have any nintendo consoles. so i guess that makes ps2 and xbox kiddy to?

  • roleplayer2004

    Posted Nov 14, 2006 5:49 am PT

    Bravo. Bravo Nintendo, finally getting some respect and recognition back from the industry. God bless Nintendo.

  • LorenaLarue

    Posted Nov 13, 2006 8:51 pm PT

    Bling bling!

  • ScottWevers

    Posted Nov 12, 2006 8:17 pm PT

    truelove79
    "But Nintendo is for kiddies right? There must be a lot of kiddies out there buying up all Nintendo has to offer."


    Then I must be a 27 year old kiddie, 'cause I support Nintendo all the way...

    seriously though, this kind of attitude doesn't hold up so well. See, I was a gamer long before Sony and Microsoft had their hands in consoles... sure it looks like big N got a little unnerved when the other big 2 stole their thunder in the last console wars, but it looks like they're back in their element again with the DS and the soon to be released Wii. They will be turning heads again, don't you doubt

  • jingwa

    Posted Nov 12, 2006 5:44 pm PT

    Not even slightly surprised by the news, although many of my friends are Sony fanboys and seemed somewhat baffled....while their psp's were colecting dust. Although i admit my DS lite also colects dust but thats just because frankly I dont have as much time as I used to, still racing mariokart against other people around the country was kind of cool and made me real lize i needed to practice more also lol.

    The Ds is doing great and now its the Wii;s turn. Wii is cheap as chips and also development time is pritty short, I wasnt surprised to see a sudden influx in 3rd party support for it, although half the games are like WTF? but taking into account how popular games like brain age was, all i can say is Nintendo has made a system which will have stuff for hardcore gamers and as well as crazy wierd people and thats going to = lots of money.

    I think it wont be to long before more biger gaming names start becoming frquent visitors on the Wii, if your a business it makes perfect sense, perhaps to a Sony or Xbox fanboy it doesnt but thats why fanboys dont run EA or any company for that matter.

  • Tungsten88

    Posted Nov 12, 2006 3:32 pm PT

    whooowhat! The little DS did that?!

  • GameBeaten

    Posted Nov 12, 2006 1:50 pm PT

    NINTENDO WINS!!!!!

  • truelove79

    Posted Nov 11, 2006 7:38 pm PT

    But Nintendo is for kiddies right? There must be a lot of kiddies out there buying up all Nintendo has to offer.

  • ChucklesMginty

    Posted Nov 11, 2006 2:49 am PT

    All right, now if only SOny would go bankrupt. Well PS3's coming out soon we'll just have to see how it turns out. Except that people are already queing to buy one XD

  • SlayerZer0

    Posted Nov 10, 2006 12:33 pm PT

    Go Nintendo!!!!!!!!!!!

  • War-Tex

    Posted Nov 9, 2006 5:01 am PT

    nintendo ds rocks like UNGH

  • Ra-Devil

    Posted Nov 8, 2006 9:33 pm PT

    I bought a PSP on release. You know what it got me? Well, I played Ape Escape on it and watched a movie or two... wow, way to go Sony, no good games, and by good games, I mean something that is GOOD and FUN, not DECENT and BORING. Nintendo, you are my light. I bought a DS Lite off this guy at Gamestop yesterday after he didn't want to sell it for $30 to GS, so I gave him $50 for it. It also came with Megaman ZX. Now I have MM ZX, Brain Age, and I'm getting FF III, so now what's next? I'm looking for a cheap Mario Kart or New Super Mario Bros., or even some Pheonix Wright, but nothing cheap. PSP games may suck, but they show it with their $20 price tag. With better games comes a bigger price I guess.

    Congrats Nintendo, you deserve your profit. After Sony pretty much "forgot" the PSP in favor of the PS3, nothing big happened, but you, you give me good games like Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, and Final Fantasy. After making me spend $250 for a damned handheld, I hope Sony dies in a fire.

  • Kaintae1134

    Posted Nov 7, 2006 11:12 pm PT

    Woo! That mean's they'll have more money to spend on making awesome games...and maybe the Game Boy Evolution?

  • Sacif

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 6:38 pm PT

    I am excited to see their profits after the console wars start anew. I think that if the Wii lives up to the hype, its going to be very interesting to see how Nintendo uses its gained profits.

  • harleyrulesall

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 1:32 pm PT

    way to go nintendo!

  • shazaila

    Posted Nov 5, 2006 10:33 am PT

    PSP is a great hand held, but DS takes the cake for me.

  • _Sam_

    Posted Nov 3, 2006 8:29 pm PT

    I bet the nintendo guys threw a party

  • snakenamedjoe

    Posted Nov 3, 2006 2:08 am PT

    "3rd party publishers are backing away from nintendo, so u think that will just change fast with a new innovative controller?"

    Nintendo controlled the market in the days of the NES and SNES because they had the 3rd party developers behind them. Quick as that the developers abandoned them for sony because sony gave them opportunities that Nintendo did not and Nintendo trailed in the days of the N64 and Gamecube. The opportunity was that it was cheaper to make a game on a CD than on a cartridge for the N64. 3rd party developers are fickle and will not stay with Sony just because of loyalty or something. The fact is, it will cost 1/5 as much money to make a game for the Wii as the PS3, and more people will have the system, because PS3 costs $600. That means more game sales and less cost to develop on the Wii.

    Almost no one will be able to afford to develop games for PS3 even if they wanted to. It's going to cost $25 million dollars to develop a game for that system. Sony has said that small developers will no longer be able to make games. The fact is, they won't make games for Sony. Sony will have games from EA and from Sony. Most others will not do very many games for PS3.

  • plasmic7

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 8:19 pm PT

    its easy mmm-kay

  • Vegeta360

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 6:55 pm PT

    Good for Nintendo. They have a quality product in the DS and DS software. Instead of being lazy they improved upon the original with the DS lite. Nintendo proves that the console industry can be profitable

  • speculative

    Posted Nov 2, 2006 10:32 am PT

    Good for Nintendo. They have a quality product in the DS and DS software. Instead of being lazy they improved upon the original with the DS lite. Nintendo proves that the console industry can be profitable; Sony and MS put out good consoles but they need to get a clue about the business end of things...

  • safatwo

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 7:40 pm PT

    The only thing funny about the console wars is that Nintendo makes money and Sony and Microsoft do not. You must be a complete idiot to invest in Microsoft or Sony.

    Companies go into business to make money, not to give fantasies to fanboys.

    Get over it.

  • zelda4ds

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 6:25 pm PT

    $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

    sorry thats a lot of money

  • casinater

    Posted Nov 1, 2006 5:09 am PT

    ha ha! Microsoft is losing money....Sony is losing money and they havent even started selling their dagum PS3.....Nintendo is making money....wonder who will last?

  • ginkeifighter4

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 3:39 pm PT

    are you serious?? How can there still be so many people who do not respect or admit to the fact that Nintendo is doing ridiculously well and that it can be entirely attributed to the company making huge strides for the benefit of the entire gaming industry. Its funny that so many people are complaining about Nintendo releasing multiple handheld systems. How in the world can anyone say that the gameboy pocket is the same as the game boy micro. Or even more that the DS is the same as the virtual boy. Not only is this argument ludicrous, its completely untrue. Additionally, who the hell decided that a company making money from the consumer is wrong. Sure pople buy multiple versions of Pokemon simply because of the different versions, its not Nintendo's fault that this occurs. If you want to complain about it, why don't you complain about the millions of consumers who do buy Pokemon games. Similarly, it is obvious to the point of ridiculousness that the ONLY thing that sony and microsoft care about is money. Sony just sued and made Lik-Sang go bankrupt because of one reason: Lik-Sang was importing psp's to europe. What was wrong with that. Its called importing for a reason. How come no one is complaining a out the shoddiness of sony products. How many ps2's have you bought?? How many labtop batteries did Sony have to recall?? Which next generation console is going to cost $600 dollars? MIcrosoft is no better. Bill Gates stole all of his early ideas from other companies and people. Don't believe me, try watching Revenge of the Nerds (bad movies, but they prove my point). At least Nintendo has found a way to make money while making the consumer happy. Instead of suing, making bad hardware, or stealing, Nintendo finds what the consumer desires and gives it to them.

    The moral of the story is that DS is far, far outselling PSP. Wii hype is through the roof and both systems are going to make money. A lot of money So what is there to complain about?

  • sony_boy_18

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 11:53 am PT

    HEY EVERYONE THE PS3 SHIPS IN 16 DAYS .YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

  • UMCP

    Posted Oct 31, 2006 10:46 am PT

    Drop the freaking wii price, then Nintendo.
    Wii may not be the most expensive console in the world, but it is definitely most overpriced console in the world. That's for sure. Why the hell do we have to pay 249.99 for a system that has No DVD playback
    No HD support
    No Hardrive
    And only like 512 MB flash memory...

    Nintendo is not better than microsoft or sony. It's funny how easily people forget about how bad gamecube did in this generation. 3rd party publishers are backing away from nintendo, so u think that will just change fast with a new innovative controller?
    Give me a break...

  • xXKINGPINXx

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 12:00 pm PT

    what do u except from a company so known worldwide like nintendo....nintendo is better than sony and microsoft ... nintendo cares about a new style to gaming and cool games but sony and microsoft ( sony especially ) just cares about power ya just power....thats why nintendo is better than any other gaming devices that all i got 2 say ...... thnx

  • DrewOwns

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:57 am PT

    Nintendo is here to stay

  • shibiovski

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 10:48 am PT

    \m/ nintendo \m/

  • danielgriswold

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 6:33 am PT

    THere were game theme parks, well, Mega Arcades, done by Sega back in the day in big cities. I remember Beck sang when Sega opened them on MTV. It was a big time, but I think they may have disappeared...along with the arcade industry as a whole.

  • GrimBee

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 4:14 am PT

    kylestarr... i honestly can actually see a games theme park in the next 5 years or so.

    I mean, if all the major software guys got together, they would benefit SO much from giving their liscence for a themepark, or rides based on their games.
    Nintendo especially, and sega too, and konami (imagine a silent hill haunted house.. ooohhh.)

    It would be absolutely fantastic, and probably only possible because Nintendo are trying to get mass world attention to games, not just hardware freaks.

    lol

  • Buckeye556

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 3:51 am PT

    hats-off to nintendo, can't wait for my brother to buy i Wii that i can "borrow" forever....

  • Shub-Niggurath

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 3:35 am PT

    WOW. Who's ruling what? Seriously though, this is what happens when Nintendo stops playing the handheld/console war the way everyone else is playing it and takes a major risk and plays it their way. Granted, the PS2/Xbox/GCN power heirarchy (from low to high) goes PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, but they seem to have (especially with the DS) trashed the idea that they should make games the way everyone else is making them (major emphasis on graphics, genre bending/blening, high horse power, uber-violence, minimal replayability) and they started making fun games and said, "screw the rest of the market".

    I have to admit when the DS I dropped the first thing I thought was "Great, another Virtual Boy" but I own one now and I have to say that I am beyond pleased with this incredible system (obviously, so is the world market). Yeah the PSP has better graphics but I can't sit through a 4 minute load time to play a game that's all flash and little substance. I was skeptical about the current Nintendo product line-up but with a collection of good, old school style Nintendo games featuring beloved Nintendo characters and gameplay formulae mixed with some newer, quirky games straight out of Japan they proved why the NES, an 8 bit system, could hold its ground for roughly a decade against the 16 bit genesis.

    Kudos to Nintendo for proving that the vide game market isn't a bunch of people who just want shiney things. That was a well earned chunk of profit.

  • stanislavski86

    Posted Oct 30, 2006 12:26 am PT

    Wow, go Ninty. I am not a fan of any company but I like DS alot.

  • kylestarr

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 11:04 pm PT

    Time to build a Nintendo based theme park (Mario World?) in sunny so cal!!

  • Maquis_UK

    Posted Oct 29, 2006 9:17 pm PT

    you don't think it's a bit rich to take the old "lack of innovation" argument on here, with the ps3 and xbox1.5 doing the rounds? more of the same from fony and m$? you betcha! but zomg teh g3ars 0f war teh hyp3 hyp3 hyp3!!!eleven!!onetwo

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