Nintendo Overtakes Sony in Video Game Revenues

Despite Sony's troubles in selling the PlayStation 3, it was still able to boast the highest software revenues of the big three -- until now.

Data released by iSuppli Tuesday indicates that in the third quarter Nintendo was able to eclipse the long-dominant Sony by some 200 million dollars, posting $1.2 billion in revenues. This was up from $943.6 million in the second quarter, and $611 million a year ago.

On the other hand, Sony remained flat quarter-to-quarter, posting revenues of $1 billion in each. iSuppli says that it expects Nintendo to maintain its dominance on the back of new hardware and software to be released through the holiday season.

"[Nintendo] expects by the end of 2007 to ship about 200 additional titles, adding to the more than 150 games already released, many from outside publishers," iSuppli multimedia research head David Carnvale said, adding the Wii Balance Board and Wii Fit should also provide a boost.

Even with Halo 3 releasing late in the quarter, Microsoft still has a long way to go to catch up to either Sony or Nintendo. The company posted $317.8 million in software revenues, up from $271.9 million in the second quarter.

It should be mentioned, however, that a comparison here is somewhat misleading: both Nintendo and Sony have portable gaming systems which are calculated within their quarterly software revenues, whereas Microsoft does not.

iSuppli said it expects Wii software alone to account for up to $1.1 billion in revenue by the fourth quarter of 2008, with revenues for its DS system reaching $1.2 billion by the same period.

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