“As noted by Reuters, the games giant has passed Canon and sits behind only the Toyota Motor Company to become the second most valuable traded company. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has a bigger market value than Nintendo, but shares are currently suspended due to a imminent share split. Shares in Nintendo were up to 59,200 JPY on Tuesday, or 3.1 per cent, bringing its market value to 8.39 trillion (GBP 36.4 million).”

It’s amazing how far the videogames industry has come, that a company, who’s only business is making games, to be ranked so high. Only lower than Toyota, currently the world’s no. 1 automobile manufacturer.

The videogames industry has become a multi-billion dollar industry, out grossing films, at times, out selling ipods, walkmans, or whatever trend products that comes our way. For a company whose sole business is making games to make this much money is unbelievable. No wonder, Microsoft so desperately wants a piece of the pie. With the first Xbox console Microsoft lost 5 billion, with the 360 they stand to lose even more, and yet they’re still in the market. They know that the future is no longer with Personal computers, that market has stagnated, but it is now with living room computers capable of playing games and accessing the internet.

Sony dominated the previous generation, and Nintendo stands to take over the market, despite Microsoft’s best efforts, (and money) they have yet to conquer the videogame industry, failing to best Sony before, and now overtaken by Nintendo.

With the ease of using the Wii-mote, and with the new patch for the console to recognize USB keyboards, Nintendo is well aware of this potential. It can be argued that they designed the console for this. Surfing the internet, with a wireless Wii-mote, and typing with a USB keyboard can be just as convenient as using a conventional mouse. We’re already seeing Wii-owners posting messages on threads and billboards using the console, though Nintendo has yet to launch their full on-line strategy. If we’re seeing people using the Wii for this now, then what will happen when millions of online players sign up to play games?

When Nintendo was developing the Wii, it was code-named “revolution”. True to its codename, we may very well be on the verge of one.