Nintendo continues to make big money

[Great Rumbler]

OSAKA (Reuters) - Japanese game maker Nintendo Co. Ltd. raised its full-year net profit forecast by 20 percent on Monday, citing a stronger dollar and solid demand for software titles for its handheld GameBoy Advance machine.

Nintendo, known for games featuring characters such as Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokemon, said it now expected group net profit of 84 billion yen ($758.9 million) for the year to March 2005, compared with its May forecast of 70 billion yen.

It also raised its net profit estimate for the April-September first half to 46 billion yen from an original 25 billion yen.

The sharp upward revision was due mainly to a foreign exchange-related gain of 36 billion yen, the company said. It holds about $5 billion worth of dollar-denominated deposits, which it revalues at the end of every accounting period.

The latest revision stems from a change in its assumed exchange rate from 105 yen to the U.S. dollar to 110 yen to the U.S. dollar. The dollar traded at around 110.60 yen on Monday.

Strong demand for its software titles for GameBoy Advance also helped improve its operating profit margin in the first half, more than offsetting slower-than-expected sales of its GameCube consoles, Nintendo said.

``Our GameCube hardware business was slightly hurt by price cuts by our rivals ... but we're considering launching a sales promotion campaign for the peak Christmas shopping season and expect to achieve our full-year sales target,'' Nintendo Senior Managing Director Yoshihiro Mori told a news conference.

Mori declined to comment on whether the company planned another price cut on the GameCube console.

Nintendo in September 2003 slashed prices for the GameCube console to below $100 in the United States to boost flagging sales. In the April-June first quarter it sold 650,000 GameCubes, versus 80,000 units a year ago, as a result.

The company kept its consolidated revenue forecast for the year to March 2005 unchanged at 430 billion yen.

Nintendo last month struck the first blow in what is set to be an all-out war with Sony Corp. for the lucrative handheld game console market, aggressively pricing its new dual-screen model at $149.99 and setting its U.S. launch date for Nov. 21.

In a bid to keep the dominance its GameBoy Advance has given it in the handheld market, Nintendo set the price for the ``DS'' dual-screen console at the bottom end of analysts expectations.

More money = Good

Cube-Europe

[OB1]

More gummi bears = better.

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah.

[alien space marine]

Nintendo new slew of advertising is pretty clever, It even makes fun of the fear mongering over video games turning people into morons.

I dont know if its just in canada were you can see it but its a drastic change for Nintendo new step.

[Great Rumbler]

The "Who are you?" commercials are pretty good, but they've only used them so far for GBA games.

[Sacred Jellybean]

It even makes fun of the fear mongering over video games turning people into morons.

I know I think this a lot when I read your posts, and I don't usually ask, but... what the fuck are you talking about??

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, what is this ad campaign? I don't understand what you mean either...

As for the topic, yes, money is good. :)

[Great Rumbler]

Of course.

[alien space marine]

Yeah, what is this ad campaign? I don't understand what you mean either...

As for the topic, yes, money is good. :)

Probaily a canadian exclusive one or did you mean my grammar was Yak brained?

I'll get a link video if I can , I think Neo should have seen it by now? If the west has it? But we all got cable and sat now dont we!

[A Black Falcon]

You don't explain it very well and I haven't heard of it... maybe it is Nintendo of Canada only or something, ask the other Canadians here I guess...

[Dark Jaguar]

I rarely know what you are talking about. But, it's probably for the best.

[alien space marine]

I rarely know what you are talking about. But, it's probably for the best.

Somtimes I dont either :loopy:

[Great Rumbler]

I always know what ASM is talking about.

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Wait, no I don't.

[alien space marine]

Nintendo

[Great Rumbler]

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...what...?

[A Black Falcon]

I think he's trying to proove that he makes no sense...

[OB1]

...

Man this forum went down the toilet in my 3-day absense.

[A Black Falcon]

Kind of boring, but also kind of nice to have no one yelling at you for no apparent reason...

[OB1]

Bubba, if there's one thing you don't have it's no reason for being yelled at.

[A Black Falcon]

Which is why you are the only one here who acts like that? ... yeah, it's not all me.

[OB1]

I'm the only one dumb enough to react to you. It's a curse. I mean everyone is thinking "My God, he actually thinks Cruisin' is better than Ridge Racer???", but they all know to just let the crazy person continue thinking crazy things. Maybe I should do the same.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Well, I've actually never played Ridge Racer and thought that Cruisin' USA wasn't all that-

OB1: Shut up, Squeak! *continues yelling at ABF*

[OB1]

I forgot... most of you kids never had a PSX...

But my point still stands regarding most other things I debate him on.

[Great Rumbler]

Ridge Racer Revolution was fun...but I never played any of the other games in the series.

[A Black Falcon]

Well, I've actually never played Ridge Racer and thought that Cruisin' USA wasn't all that-

Oooh, you said that where OB1 could hear! Now you're going to get it... :)

And Ridge Racer 64 was okay. I didn't love it though. It has a sizable learning curve... you have to figure out that you have to powerslide on every curve of note and have to figure out how to powerslide. Honestly, after renting it I didn't really want to buy the game... the actual RACING was not as fun as most of my other N64 racing games. I mean, it's a better GAME than Cruis'n Exotica, but it probably isn't as much fun... in the short term at least... actually, I can't think of any of my N64 racing games I'd say it's better than. Episode I Racer comes closest, but that gets bonus points for being Star Wars... :)

[OB1]

Like I said, I forgot that most Tendites never had PSXs. I didn't either, but I played PSX games in this one arcade-type store all of the time. $1 for half an hour of play.

RR64 isn't anywhere near as good as the first four games, but it's still a hundred times better than all of the Cruisin' titles put together.

[A Black Falcon]

Maybe after a bunch of hours of play and learning the game, but in a 'play each for two or three days' setup, Cruis'n easily wins.

As for your first point... um... this is a NINTENDO FORUM, not a PSX-Fan Forum...

[OB1]

Hey I know that everyone here used to be Nintendo fanboys (save Ryan and nick), but I assumed that times have changed.

And nothing is worse than Cruisin'. Nothing.

[A Black Falcon]

If you say that, then there are a lot of racing games that you have not played...

[OB1]

I've played 'em all. Cruisin' may not be the single worst racing game ever conceived, but the whole series is an atrocity and an embarrassment to the industry. That it succeeded so well solely because of the horrible tastes of casual gamers is very unfortunate. It's the Army Men of racing games: terrible, terrible titles that do well because for some ungodly reason casual gamers can't get enough of it.

[A Black Falcon]

Army Men wasn't bad because it was a bad concept or because the series started off awfully. Army Men 1, for the PC, wasn't fantastic but was actually a decent game. No, that problem was that 3D0 was slipping downhill and their quality was going with it. They killed ALL of their franchises... Army Men was just a new one so it didn't have as far to go before people identified it as bad. Cruis'n is quite different.

[OB1]

Cruisin' did it on a larger scale, but it's still the same concept: terrible games being successes because of casual gamers (or gamers will awful tastes).

[A Black Falcon]

I'll just ask this, have you played the first Army Men?

[OB1]

The strategy games?

[A Black Falcon]

action game really, but I guess you could call it "strategy"... it got like a 75% in PCG and deserved about that score. Not great, but not horrible. The horrible part is what 3D0 did to the series... and as I said they did that to everything. See: the endless stream of small Heroes III-engine stand alone expansions, Might & Magic VIII, Heroes of Might & Magic IV, their later tank games, most of the Army Men titles, etc...

[OB1]

And the series became popular under 3DO. That's what I'm talking about, the console games.

[A Black Falcon]

The only console Army Men game I have played is Army Men Air Combat for the N64, and I actually thought that that game was a pretty good game... not great, and too easy, but fun. On PC I've played Army Men and Army Men RTS, both of which are similarly decent, but not fantastic, games... so in the limited experience I have with the series, it wasn't all that bad. If you pick and choose the better ones. :)

And I don't understand your comment about 3D0. Um, do you think there was someone before them or something?

[OB1]

What? I thought you said that it's when 3DO too over that the series started to suck.

And it's 3DO, not 3D0. ;)

[A Black Falcon]

http://www.3do.com/armymen/armymen/

Looks like a 0 to me...

And I said that when 3D0 started to slip that its quality fell. 3D0 was getting into financial trouble and one way to get out of it was to cut quality and increase product count... so they dragged the names of their remaining serieses in the mud until fans had abandoned the publisher, pretty much. As I said, look at where the Heroes of Might & Magic series went from HOMM3 on to get a perfect case of THAT in action. At least Might & Magic didn't have an unending series of mediocre releases... they just kept it to a couple of big mediocre titles. :)

[OB1]

<http://www.3do.com/armymen/armymen/>

Looks like a 0 to me...

Huh. Well you still pronounce it like "three-dee-oh".


And whatever the case is, the popular Army Men games (read: the console ones) were atrocious.

[A Black Falcon]

Right, "three-dee-oh", not "three-doh..." that's how they say it in game intros where it is said, anyway... if it was '3DO" you might expect the second pronunciation.

As for Army Men, like HOMM that was my point. They pumped out garbage to try to stay afloat. It failed, after a few years, and now 3D0 is gone...

[OB1]

What? I meant as opposed to "three-dee-zero". Who would say "three-doh"?

And their Army Men garbage is what got them huge profits.

[Great Rumbler]

It's 3DO. Speaking of 3DO, I actually have a 3DO console.

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3DO.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I have one, too! Although technically, it's my former room mates... but still, it's in my possession! :luigiwin:

[Great Rumbler]

The one I have is actually mine and it's in my possesion...right now, because I'm holding it because it is a very sad console and it often cries at night because no one plays with it. Sad really.

[A Black Falcon]

If that's a O, it's the most 0-looking O I've ever seen...

[Great Rumbler]

It's totally a 3DO, dude.

[A Black Falcon]

Did you look at their logo on the link I posted?

[OB1]

Yeah well they're 3DO, so they don't know anything. Not even how to spell their name.

[A Black Falcon]

Perhaps...