Nintendo tog guldet i 2003

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Jeg siger ikke at GC er til grin, spiludvalget har dog været alt for længe.

Med Twin Snakes og Crystal Chronicles ser det bedre ud, men der er alt for langt mellem titlerne til en maskine, som bare ikke favoriseres til multiformat titler!

-Og ja, jeg ville faktisk kalde mig hardcore gamer, ud fra den tid jeg bruger på spilrelaterede aktiviteter hver dag.

Nintendo 9-mth profit hits Y103B on GameCube sales

Thu January 29, 2004 01:58 AM ET

TOKYO, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co Ltd (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday group operating profit totalled 102.6 billion yen ($966.2 million) in the nine months to December 31, boosted by improving sales of its GameCube console.

The Kyoto-based company did not give separate quarterly data or year-ago comparisons with its nine-month figures. However, Nintendo is now 89 percent towards its November operating profit target of 115 billion for the year ending March 31.

Nine-month sales reached 439.6 billion yen, or more than 80 percent of its full-year estimate of 510 billion yen. Net profit came to 34.6 billion yen for the April-December period.

Nintendo revived the fortunes of its mainstay GameCube console with an aggressive price cut to below $100 in the United States ahead of the holiday shopping season. That sparked a 70 percent year-on-year rise GameCube's year-end sales.

Microsoft's Connors Says Current Xbox Model Won't Be Profitable


Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., which is trying to
compete with Sony Corp. in video-game consoles, will try to
design the next version of its Xbox machine with cheaper parts
because the current model won't ever be profitable.

``With the current cost of goods, there's no way to make
money with this generation of the console,'' Chief Financial
Officer John Connors said at an investor presentation in Boston.


He didn't say when Microsoft would introduce a new Xbox.
Analysts expect the next one in 2005 or 2006.

--Dina Bass in Seattle dbass2@bloomberg.net

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3436327.stm

Last Updated: Wednesday, 28 January, 2004, 08:12 GMT

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Sluggish PS2 dents Sony profits


The PS2 boom has come to a halt
Slow sales of games consoles and a poor performance at the cinema box office have battered profits at Japan's Sony.
The electronics and entertainment group has unveiled a 20% fall in operating profit, to 159bn yen (£824m; $1.5bn) for the last quarter of 2003.

Although the firm boasted strong sales of DVD-related products, the gains were not enough to offset slumping shipments of Playstation 2 consoles.

PS2 sales fell 15% during the quarter, although full-year targets were hit.


Losing track

Sony, long the most successful of Japan's electronics exporters, has fallen on hard times over the past year.


Nobuyuki Idei remains optimistic
Sales in its core consumer electronics division have been weak, at least in part because its products have been perceived as tired.

At the same time, it has invested heavily in entertainment and other non-core activities - money which some analysts say has been rashly spent.

Sony's movie division was its weakest performer during the fourth quarter: profits were down 82% and sales dropped 29% as the studio could not match last year's hit releases such as "Spiderman" and "Men in Black 2".

Over the same period, more focused electronics rivals such as Sharp and Matsushita - the firm behind the Panasonic brand - have performed strongly.


High hopes

Sony has, however, maintained a relatively optimistic forecast for this year as a whole.

Even as sales stagnate, the company will be boosted by the strength of the euro against the yen.

And some analysts said the results were better than they had feared.

A year ago, the company stunned investors, and sparked a general plunge in Japanese shares, after unveiling a surprise $1bn loss.

Sony chief executive Nobuyuki Idei now says the firm's revival is "progressing smoothly", and insists that new ranges of flat-screen TVs, DVD recorders and digital cameras promise to liven up its sluggish consumer electronics division.