Nintendo Getting Richer!

Nintendo hasn't just been sitting attractively on its laurels these past twelve months. Nope, the Kyoto firm has kept itself engaged by generating giant wads of filthy lucre, in gameness for when it takes over the world with Satoru Iwata as our new superlative overlord, and Shiggy his merciless, iron-fisted deputy.

The company has released information of its full year outcomes for the period ended March 31st, 2008, and do you know? Nintendo is rich. Profits shot up by 47.7 percent, while retailings rose by 73 percent (to ¥1.67 trillion, or $16.1bn). Damn!

Not only that, but the Wii sold 18.61 million consoles in the last monetary year, taking it to a lifetime total of 24.45 million units (and, as we're now in late-April, we can securely assume that that figure has approved the landmark total of 25 million). On the software front, the console now has 26 million-sellers (up from five last year), 1.8m Japanese consumers risked their hamstrings by picking up Wii Fit, and Brawl sold 4.85 million units in the U.S. and Japan (and might even sell a few more when it launches in Europe this June).