Nintendo continues to profit.

[Rase]

The first Quarter of the year 2004 has seen the big N continue its happy streak of earning more money.

Nintendo disclosed earlier today that its quarterly profits more than doubled as demand for its Game Boy Advance soared and GameCube console sales increased by about eight-fold. Though the majority of its gain clearly was derived from the sales of Game Boy Advance software which was up a whopping 70% during the April-June period.

"We saw a 13 percentage point improvement in operating margin, because software sales were strong and we didn't have GameCube inventory costs that we had last year," said Nintendo Senior Managing Director Yoshihiro Mori.

In the numbers game, Nintendo's operating profit for the three months ending June 30th totalled 17.47 billion yen ($157.5 million) versus the 7.25 billion yen earned a year earlier.

GameCube sales also accounted for the biggest change in the past year as Nintendo sold 650,000 GameCube's for the quarter as opposed to a mere 80,000 units for the same period one year ago. And GameCube software sales have benefited from the larger installed base, getting a 20% boost in sales to about 7.4 million titles in the April-June period.

"At the moment, there are no serious concerns for Nintendo's business," said Hiroshi Kamide, analyst at KBC Securities.

Clearly, Nintendo still has the muscle to make money in the industry. The question is can they improve their brand identity in the future with the impending launch of the Nintendo DS and the eventual launch of their next console the Revolution?

Good news for the 'Cube owners like me.

[SpikingZero]

Good. Maybe they'll be less stupid about multiplayer games and not have so many of them require a Game Boy Advance.

I will admit, I was a little bit doubtful about how Nintendo was going to do. But it has quietly turned a corner and is starting to regain some respect and popularity. To be honest, the PS2 has taken the opposite turn; they've started to falter just a little bit it seems, and XBox has steadily improved as well.

Yes, as a fellow Cube owner, let me say this:

"It's about time!"

[edczxcvbnm]

Not very surprising and should have been expected. This comes as no surprise to me. Cube was $150 this time last year and now a lot of titles are cheaper and/or player's choice titles. Its good news still but I would be dissappointed if it were worse considering how far we are into the console life cycle now.

[Dingo Jellybean]

I use to own a Gamecube, but I sold it due to a lack of a number of quality games.

I kinda wish I didn't sell it, but I don't mind it. Word is, I heard the Gamecube would drop to $80 before this Christmas...which should really boost their sales. It'll be the lowest price for a mainstream console since the PSOne went for $40.

The DS will be backwards compatible, and so will the PS3. So that'll be neat...maybe I should just wait until a Gameboy Super Advance or a PS7 comes out since backwards compatibility seems to be the craze in recent years.

[Chzn8r]

That's really nice information to know. Thanks for the heads up

I just went and posted that on like 5 forums Big Nintendo guy here.

[Rainecloud]

I grew up with Nintendo, so it's nice to see that the company is still growing strong.

Let's hope they don't botch up any of their future consoles.

[Rase]

Well, if anyone didn't know, the next one, codenamed "Revolution", will be, you guessed it, backwards compatible.

[Lionx]

How would it be backwards compatibile? Just curious as to how it goes, you have an article i can read up on this? It would really help ^^

As a Nintendo fan all my life since the 8-bit NES days, i am glad Nintendo didnt fall completely out of the console industry, as i have great respect for them putting out good games and respectable consoles(since when does Sony or Microsoft[besides Halo] ever make something as original and great as Zelda or Mario?). ^^b Gogo Nintendo.