Nintendo’s profits show it’s still a toy company at heart

Nintendo is a company that almost everyone associates with its games consoles. The classic NES, the iconic N64 and the more recent popularisation of casual gaming among all walks of life with its Wii system. But as of late, it's made a big chunk of its money from selling Amiibo figurines, hearkening back to the earlier days of the company where toys were its main focus.

What many don't realise is that Nintendo has been around in one guise or another for over 100 years. Started in 1889 by a member of the Yamauchi family, it initially made playing cards, which sold well with various artistic changes for more than 70 years.

After they began to drop off, Nintendo diversified, selling children's toys like the Ultra Hand, Ulra Machine and even a “Love Tester,” which helped tide it over until the electronic gaming era really kicked off for Nintendo in the late '70s and early '80s.

“It's a me, you're saviour!”

In the same way, Nintendo has supplemented its lacklustre Wii U hardware and software sales with an incredibly successful line of Amiibo hardware, selling a confirmed 10.5 million by May this year. In the past quarter, Nintendo has netted itself a profit of just over $1.1 billion yen (£5.7 million). That's a big improvement over last year's Q1 loss of 6.3 billion yen (£32.6 million)

This is only thought to be the beginning of Nintendo's latest resurgence. With strong sales expected from its new mobile ventures with DeNA Co, Nintendo has predicted a profit of $50 billion yen for the year ending March. Although stock prices fell slightly at the news (as per Reuters) overall Nintendo shares have grown more than 60 per cent in the past year due to a strong investor reaction to Nintendo's announcement of its drive into mobile gaming.

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KitGuru Says: It's a wonder more companies haven't gotten into the NFC figurines at this point. Nintendo and GameFreak themselves are missing out on such a huge opportunity to milk fans with a Pokemon version. You have to wonder why. 

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