nintendo

Nintendo's financial troubles just keep coming.

The venerable game maker announced (PDF) today that it generated 84.8 billion yen (about $1.08 billion) in revenue during the three-month period ended June 30, representing a 9.7 percent decline from the 93.9 billion yen it secured in sales during the same period last year. The company was forced to incur a net loss of 17.2 billion yen ($220 million), which, while disconcerting, was actually better than the 25.5 billion yen figure from last year.

Nintendo's financial position becomes even more concerning when one considers its … Read more

The Korea Customs Service (KCS) has uncovered what it believes is a piracy ring dedicated to copying Nintendo games and creating bootleg cartridges to sell online.

According to the Korea Herald, 25 people were involved in the ring, including 15 online shopping mall managers. The KCS believes the individuals have sold at least 90,000 pirated games and cartridges worth approximately 100 billion won ($87.2 million).

Advertised as "100 percent authentic" with a "perfect after-sales service", the ring is thought to have distributed illegal copies of Nintendo DS games alongside R4, DSTT and DSTTi -- … Read more

Nintendo's 3DS XL might be larger than its predecessor, but the gaming handheld also comes with a few improvements that could make using it a tad bit more enjoyable.

In a recent question-and-answer session with Nintendo chief Satoru Iwata, Takashi Murakami, part of Nintendo's research and engineering department, said he had been working on reducing the glare in the 3DS XL "for quite some time." And it appears those efforts proved fruitful.

"Reflectivity on the Nintendo 3DS was about 12 percent," Murakami told Iwata in the interview. "We decreased that to about 3 … Read more

Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's 3DS sales are going strong in the U.S., according to numbers the two companies released today.

The numbers, gathered by research company NPD Group, show Nintendo maintaining a 75 percent market share for portable hardware and Microsoft's Xbox holding onto the top spot for console sales.

This is Xbox's 18th consecutive month at No. 1, with its sales making up 47 percent of current-generation console sales, Jeff Meisner, editor of the Official Microsoft Blog posted today.

The sales equal 257,000 units sold in June with total retail spent on … Read more

The world is annoyed with Facebook, but I'm stressed out over zombies:

Last week, Facebook automaticly changed the email address displayed in profiles to be the Facebook email that no one uses. Well the drama doesn't end there. Some smartphones that sync contacts with Facebook have auto-updated address book info with Facebook emails. Do yourself (and your friends) a favor and make sure the right email is listed in your profile. If you think you're missing emails because of this change-up, click on Messages in the left-hand column, then click on Other. That's where Facebook hides … Read more

Despite more than a year of teases, one critical aspect of Nintendo's Wii U remains a mystery: the pricing.

With two E3 gaming expos now under its belt, we know plenty about the Wii U. Nintendo has showed off many HD games and fully revealed the second-screen GamePad tablet.

Earlier this month, CNET Senior Editor Scott Stein mused on the Wii U's retail cost, saying: "The Wii U needs to undercut the competition and be practically an impulse purchase. Is that even possible?"

To answer that question, perhaps we should look at Nintendo's past.… Read more

It wasn't that long ago that the Nintendo Wii was one of the most sought-after items on the planet. Especially around the holidays, when supply simply couldn't meet demand. The then-revolutionary game console was selling on eBay for double, triple, even quadruple its $249 list price.

Now you can get it for 80 bucks.

Specifically, GameStop has the refurbished Nintendo Wii console for $79.99, plus $4.99 for shipping (and not including sales tax, where applicable). That's the lowest price I've ever seen.

Of course, Nintendo's next-generation Wii U console is just around the corner, … Read more

It's time to live large, change your fate and flip out:

Nintendo just ordered up a supersized version of the 3DS. Going on sale on August 19 for $200, the 3DS XL is 90% larger than the original 3DS. Nintendo could have taken this product in a new direction for gamers by using the extra space to add a second analog stick. But no, the XL has the same design as the 3DS. It's also a bit odd that Nintendo didn't announce this two weeks ago at E3.

So who would want the 3DS XL? Larger screens … Read more

Nintendo is one of the most iconic companies in gaming, but it faces the real possibility of oblivion if it doesn't find a way to turn its fortunes around.

In October 2007, less than a year after the release of its blockbuster Wii console, Nintendo was worth $78.50 per share. That equated to a market cap of $85 billion -- double the value of Sony at the time.

However, Nintendo's fortunes have only gone south since then. With Wii sales cooling and mobile apps the hot trend in gaming, Nintendo's stock collapsed this month to $14.… Read more