Nintendo Wii Fanboy

You can barely move in the blogosphere without bumping into another "Nintendo is rich" story, and we're not about to help matters -- sorry.

Anyway, the skinny is that Nintendo shares have soared after the company upped its full-year profit forecast by 26%. It now anticipates that it will sell 26.5 million Wiis (surely taking it past the N64's lifetime sales of approximately 33 million by year end) and 30.5 million DSes during 2008. Ninty also reckons that in the year ending March 31, net income will climb 59 percent to $3.8 billion, a.k.a. a lot of frickin' wonga.

This news does represent a mini-turnaround of sorts in Nintendo's financial fortunes -- before today, the company's stock had fallen 17% since July 30th, but the latest renewed forecast has seen shares boosted by 8.4%. Now if only we'd actually bought some in the late-'90s. Bah. Oh well, clink those champagne glasses, everybody!

[Via NeoGAF]

To the surprise of, well, no one, Nintendo had a pretty stellar first fiscal quarter of 2008, raking in a net profit of nearly 1 billion dollars (107.2 billion yen). Wii hardware was responsible for $5.17 million of that profit, which is an increase of almost $1.75 million from last year's fiscal Q1. Meanwhile, Wii software raked in $40.41 million (up $24.42 million).

Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit were part of the reason for this software success, since in the quarter Wii Fit sold 3.42 million copies and Mario Kart sold a whopping 6.42 million units. And, if you weren't yet convinced that Nintendo deserves the "printing money" meme, the company is projected to bring in a net profit of about $3 billion dollars for the year.

We don't know about you, but our own wallets and bank accounts are growling with envy.

Update: Fixed some typos. Thanks for the heads up, Sonic_13!

[Via NeoGAF]

Once upon a time, in a land called Eighteen Months Ago, a new games console called "Wii" was announced. With its easily manipulated name, unusual motion-sensing controls and standard definition visuals, many onlookers instantly chose to hoot and holler at this most unconventional piece of hardware. Amidst much snickering, God-awful puns and subtle anatomical jokes were cracked.

Fast-forward a year and a half, and it is Nintendo that is laughing longest, loudest, and yes, hardest. Earlier today, the company published a half year profits forecast that practically glowed with positivity: profit is expected to treble for this fiscal year, the previously mocked Wii is expected to sell 17.5m units by March 31, and Ninty has raised expected software sales during this fiscal year by 35%.

Translation: Nintendo is neck-deep in lovely, filthy lucre. And to think both Wii Fit and Brawl are yet to touch down in stores.

Barron's annual list of the 30 Best CEOs has a new addition, and we're proud to name him among the lords and masters of our wallets. The Wii's ridiculous success (and the fact that you can't get one) brought Satoru Iwata to the attention of the financial weekly's listmakers, who also recognized such perennial favorites as Steve Jobs. Not only that, but Iwata is the only game industry CEO to make the list. The common thread among these "best" chiefs? They deliver. Wow, it's like those finance fellas are speaking our language.

We figure it's about time someone made a Wii version of our favorite picture. Who's with us?

[Via Infendo]