I don’t know whether gamers are interested in the happenings at the Dalal Street or Wall Street or Nikkei. But they would surely be interested to know that Nintendo has gone past Sony and has now become, for the first time, one of Japan’s top 10 issues. Sony had been dominating the gaming industry for the last ten years.
Takeshi Koyama is an analyst with the Mizuho Securities. He explains, “It is becoming quite clear that Nintendo is taking back its market share from Sony in the console market while well defending its stronghold of portable games. However, investors should watch out for a possible pull-back after two year-long bull runs. This is one of those companies that is not exactly making daily necessities. One negative factor and shares could take a dive. We need to be careful in dealing with shares like this.”
Nintendo has now joined the likes of Toyota, Honda and Canon on the list of the 10 most valuable Japanese companies. Its shares had risen 1.5 percent at 46,150 yen by midday. This increased its market value to 6.54 trillion yen ($53 billion). At the same time, Sony’s shares fell 1.1 percent to 6,480 yen, or 6.50 trillion yen in market capitalization.
It is a big thing for Nintendo to be on that list as compared to Sony, it operates in a very niche market. Gaming industry is huge, but Sony also operates in the consumer electronics space, while Nintendo just sells products which are related to gaming.