Nintendo tops Sony's market value

Last week both Nintendo and Sony shares continued to climb, with the former rapidly creeping up on the latter's market capitalisation, according to Bloomberg. Today Nintendo shares temporarily overtook Sony, hitting a record high of 45,350 yen (approx $367), which brought the company's net worth to 6.57 trillion yen ($53 billion), in comparison to Sony's 6.48 trillion yen ($52 billion). At the close of the Tokyo-based Nikkei stock exchange, Nintendo's shares had dropped down to 45,100 yen ($365).

The company may also beat Sony's sales figures this year, as it has forecast 1.14 trillion yen in revenue ($9.2 billion) this business year, following on from 966.5 billion yen ($7.8 billion) in its last fiscal year, which ended March 2007. Sony, which reported 1.02 trillion yen ($8 billion) sales in its game division, has not published an estimate for its financial 2008 year, which also started in April 2007.

Nintendo is reported to have sold about 2.37 million Wii consoles in the US, 2 million in Japan, and 1.47 million in other regions, including Europe.

Nintendo spokesperson Ken Toyoda said that he did not believe that sales in the US had reached their full potential, and that in the past, the company had sold twice as many consoles in the US as in Japan or Europe.