For the Japanese financial year through to March 2008, Nintendo reported a whopping 52.6% jump in operating earnings, as its Wii and DS portable gaming machines continued to rack up brisk sales.
Last year, according to BusinessWeek Nintendo's operating income more than doubled to $4.7 billion thanks to a whopping 73% jump in sales to $16.2 billion. And its profit margins edged up to 29%, from an already impressive 23% the previous year.
But not all is looking bright at Nintendo. The company's forecasts for this year are far less impressive, with single-digit gains expected for both revenues and operating profits in the current fiscal year.
BusinessWeek goes on to say that this this reflects a simple fact: Fewer consumers will be investing in video games if the economy turns nasty. And of the big three video game console makers, Nintendo is the one that stands to lose the most if a recession hits. That's because it has wooed ordinary consumers who might not normally buy a video gaming machine but were drawn in by the DS's easy-to-use touch screen and the Wii's motion-sensing remote controller, which can be swung like a baseball bat or pointed at the screen and shot like a gun.
