How is a winner in the console race determined? By the number of consoles companies have sold? Or by how much the console company made? If money does the talking for you, then you're probably in for a shock. Sony may have led the console race last generation in terms of hardware install base, but guess who made the most money (and on the operating income level, we must add)? That's right: Nintendo - if the calculations of Justin of Gamerinvestments.com is accurate and factual.

Games Critics Awards is proud to bring to us the list of their top 10 games of 2007. 2K Games' BioShock (PC, Xbox 360) had the prestigious honor of grabbing the top spot as the judges' choice for Game of the Year, based on the point system ranking devised by Games Critics.

You can take a look at the other games that made it into the list in the full article!

The Wii did much better in October than analysts Michael Pachter and Jesse Divinch predicted. Divinch now predicts that the Wii and the DS will again dominate the holidays.

He further predicts that the Wii will sell just beyond a million units more than the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. He also makes other observations; read about them in the full article.

 

Electronic Arts' long-awaited dance party game Boogie has now hit its shipping date, which was followed with a prompt announcement by the worldwide publisher. The attention call via press wire heralded the shipping of Boogie for the Wii to stores all over North America and reminded that Europe was to receive their version by August 31.

Rehashed versions of popular rhythm tracks by The Jackson 5, Kool & The Gang, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Cyndi Lauper, Black Eyed Peas and Britney Spears, among others, will litter the game's selectable soundtrack. Coupled with enjoyment over the ultimate party mode, players will also be able to create their own music videos or groove solo in the story mode for fame and fortune.

EA has estimated a price of US$ 59.99 for the game bundled with a karaoke microphone and announced an ESRB rating of E10+ (Lyrics and Suggestive Themes) for the U.S. version of the game. PEGI has rated the game as 3+ for European versions.

With the NPD Group's June report arriving next Monday, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter, fresh out from frowning upon the recently concluded E3 Media & Business Summit, gathered relevant information and flexed a couple of neurons to predict last month's findings.

 

Top on his fortune telling list is that the Nintendo Wii's monthly sales will rise higher than a 4 to 1 ratio against the Sony PlayStation 3, even while Nintendo still cannot supply the overwhelming demand. Notably, however, Pachter is being optimistic about the PlayStation 3's 100,000 sales point for a second time, lowered estimates for the Xbox 360's sales, and forecasted June's numbers as:

• Wii - 435,000
• PS3 - 100,000
• 360 - 200,000
• PS2 - 235,000
• PSP - 250,000
• DS - 550,000
• GBA - 90,000

In comparison, Gamasutra reports that simExchange has also offered its own predictions for the NPD June reports. Predictions aggregated from several users of the service cried out a 433,000 unit sales for the Wii, 101,000 for the PlayStation 3, 191,000 for the Xbox 360, 273,000 for Sony's PlayStation Portable, and 510,000 for the Nintendo DS.

Activision, according to Pachter, will have seen the largest financial gain in June, garnering US$ 80 million worth in revenue, a year-on-year rise of 129%, while Take-Two Interactive may see an optimistic 6% increase from last year's revenue to US$ 40 million, despite the issues over Manhunt 2 and the company's restructuring efforts.

Although Pachter predicted 2007 as the Year of EA, Electronic Arts isn't doing better in his forecast as it may suffer a 11% drop - compared to last year - to US$ 65 million for the month of June.

A couple of days ago, we told you that Fortune Magazine believes that Nintendo Wii is going to win this round of the video game console war. One of the interesting points raised by the said publication was how cheap it is to manufacture the motion-sensitive controller Wiimote.

Now, it seems that every single one of us overlooked a very important component of the Wiimote: an audio translator chip being developed in Japan and the Philippines with an estimated cost of US$ 2. Now, what the heck is this chip doing inside the Wiimote? And more importantly, what the heck is an audio translator?

Well, no one knows for certain yet as it is currently not in use. However, it is important to point out that an audio translator chip is able convert analog data such as human speech into a digital data stream. It is highly feasible that Nintendo has something important planned for this chip in the future.

Guys, feel free to speculate. We're thinking that maybe this has something to do with the USB microphones already announced that will come bundled with some games like Boogie. What's on your mind?

Although the game industry finds that it's too early to tell, the business world has already made their stand on the console race. To the business moguls that swim in oceans of profit, the console wars has already been decided.

And Fortune magazine, the iconic media vein that touches each of the Fortune 500 companies, announced the winner: the Nintendo Wii.

In fact, issue number 10 dated June 11, 2007 of Fortune has not only given their two million dollars-worth on the whole console wars issue, it was even plastered all over the issue's front page. The story was entitled "How Wii Won" and was followed by the subs "The Secret of Nintendo's Surprise Mega-Hit."

Obviously not oblivious to the fast growing games industry, the business magazine dived into an in-depth analysis of Nintendo's "secret formula" that made the profit-makers tender their decision of the game console race. There were many points that Jeffrey M. O'Brien reported, including financial and business relationships and outlooks.

Now everyone knows that the Wii sells out like nothing ever seen before, but what people didn't know is that Nintendo has been gaining a US$ 50 profit per Wii sold and that is largely attributed to a ingeniously invented device that probably costs no more than $ 15 to make: the Wii remote.

Click on Full Article to read on Fortune's coverage of the Wii-markable Nintendo console.

It looks like Activision's estimates were spot-on, as their Q3 report notes an 84% rise in profits. While the game publisher expects their revenue for the fourth quarter to be higher than their early estimates, they're tempering their news as a result of some additional news that will evidently detract from their business.

The company's net income rose sharply, from US$ 67.9 million to US$ 124.8 million. Compared to last year's Q3 revenues, Activision has also had some good fortune with a net revenue of US$ 822.8 million, definitely a boon compared to last year's US$ 816.2 million.

At the same time, they've also tempered their enthusiasm for next quarter's results. This is due to their upcoming review of their stock option practices, as well as the delay of their highly-anticipated Enemy Territory: Quake Wars game.

The triumvirate of next-generation consoles are all out. The war is now on. And IBM Corporation is sitting comfortably on its fortune at the backstage. As all of you might be aware, it was this company who developed the Power chip that powers Xbox 360 and Wii, as well as the Cell chip found inside the PlayStation 3.

The videogame deals earned IBM up to US$ 2.9 billion last year and US$ 2.5 billion in 2004. At the end of 2006, which by the way is just few days away, the company is expected to see about US$ 3.7 billion in sales of chips and associated design services. Aside from the actual sales, IBM has formed a new "technology collaboration solutions" unit that is expected to post US$ 4 billion in revenue this year.

This is actually a glaring contrast to status of the company before the deals. Prior to 2004, IBM was struggling to attract enough outside chip-making work to cover the enormous cost of manufacturing. As a result, their hardware division suffered a lost of US$ 252 million in 2003. The head of the said division, William Zeitler, couldn't hide his astonishment:

I think of this at the same stage of development that outsourcing was in the early '90s. There were a lot of people skeptical and now it represents a large part of IBM's portfolio. We had exactly the right proposition at exactly the right time. Ten years ago it would have been inconceivable that all the game processors would have used IBM product. Nobody would have thought of it because all we had was standard things.

Now that they've conquered the videogame market, IBM is looking on new prospects. They reported that possible future application of the chip includes computers for medical imaging, defense and complex simulations. Currently, IBM is expecting to ink a deal with companies like Mercury Computing Systems and Toshiba.

Leading financial management company Merrill Lynch upgraded its target price for Nintendo. Currently, the company's share price is tagged at $233, from around $198. In the meanwhile, things are looking really gloomy for Sony PS3, at least according to the advisory group.

The firm added that the fortune Nintendo has been getting recently, including more than 100% price raise in the last year, can not mainly be attributed to the Nintendo DS. Following the triumph the Wii got at E3, analysts started to warm up to it, making it really poise to be the next big thing in the often excitingly turbulent gaming world.

As of now, it is believed that the Nintendo Wii will only take a 20% or so market share. But the company is really on a roll and things will just get better, especially when next month's detailed launch comes.

Microsoft and Sony bigwigs better brace themselves and devise strategies to weather and last this coming Nintendo onslaught.