Sad, but true
Sony’s PlayStation Network made more money last year than the entire Nintendo company put together.
Following Ninty’s financial statement yesterday, people cleverer than me noticed that PSN alone generated ¥529.1bn, compared to “just” ¥504.4 billion for Nintendo.
Twittererererer and video game industry analyst ZhugeEX pointed it out (thanks, Eurogamer):
Sony’s PlayStation Network sales hit 529,000m yen which means that PSN generated more revenue than the whole of Nintendo (504,000m yen).
— ZhugeEX (@ZhugeEX) April 28, 2016
Surprised? Not really, right? So far, 2016 has been a quiet year for Nintendo, both in terms of hardware sales (we’ve bought just 12.8 million Wii Us, compared to 40 million PlayStation 4s) and game sales.
Right around now I’d be adding some science about Xbox One sales, but Microsoft are so reticent about revealing sales, estimations are all we have to go on. It’s thought the Xbox One has shifted half as much as PS4s, coming in at around 20 million – which is essentially twice as much as the Wii U.
There is no official Xbox One sales figures. Here are ESTIMATED sales numbers added to the last chart I posted. pic.twitter.com/ZoPvs7qkRW
— ZhugeEX (@ZhugeEX) April 28, 2016
It’s easy to see how hardware sales, platform exclusivity and growing subscription basesfor both Sony and Microsoft give them an edge over Nintendo, but when contrasted with Wii sales — which were astronomical — it must be of concern… to Nintendo staff and fans alike.
Nintendo profits have dropped 61 percent. The company had hoped to hit a profit of ¥17 billion, butNintendo’slatest financial resultsshow a net profit for the close of fiscal year of ¥16.5 billion ($149 million USD), which is down from ¥41.8 billion on the same period last year.