Wired's Chris Kohler spoke with Mark Rein of Epic Games in an interview published yesterday. In it, Rein reveals some interesting tidbits about his company's blockbuster Gears of War and the Unreal Engine. In light of regular big game budget announcements, it might come as a surprise that Epic's pumped up third-person sci-fi shooter went out the door for so cheap.

We spent less than $10 million to make Gears of War. Somewhere between nine and ten million dollars. People are always saying that making next-generation games is really expensive, and we're saying, you should license our technology. Because we have really great tools for building content and a great pipeline that makes your team more productive...

Just ten million? I'm pretty sure I have that in nickels in the folds of my couch. Anyone out there looking for funding?

Given that Epic's oft-licensed Unreal Engine is presumably helping the compay swim in cash, I'm guessing that Rein and Cliffy B won't be looking for financial help in the near future. Michael McWhertor

Interview: Epic's Mark Rein [Game|Life]

It should come as little surprise that Nintendo reported record profits today for the end of their third quarter, selling millions upon millions of things worldwide. What kind of things? How about 3.19 million Wiis? Would you believe 1.5 million Virtual Console games? Can I possibly impress you with nineteen Nintendo published titles that sold more than a million copies in nine months?

With the exception of some 800,000 Wiis that didn't make it into gamers hands before the end of the year, it's good news all around for the company cruising the unchartered waters of gaming's Blue Ocean. Net sales are up, operating income is up, Wiis are reselling old NES games to people who already own them for five bucks a pop, DSes continue to print money, and people are still buying Game Boys.

Not mentioned in the report were plans for Satoru Iwata to complete the gold plating of his home office or when Shigeru Miyamoto will have the diamond encrusting redone on his bicycle. With all that cash flying around, it seems strange that both men are still getting 1000 yen haircuts. It is a mystery!

Full release after the jump. Michael McWhertor

Nintendo 3Q Consolidated Financial Results

Nintendo Co., Ltd. today announced that strong sales of Nintendo DS hardware and software and the successful launch of Wii have led to record consolidated sales and operational profit for the nine-month period ending Dec. 31, 2006 (*see attached). Recurring and net profits also set record highs. Nintendo maintains projections for record financial results through its fiscal year, which ends March 31, 2007.

Thanks to extremely strong Nintendo DS sales and the successful launch of Wii, Nintendo's consolidated net sales were up 72.8 percent over the same nine-month period last year, and operating income was up 102.5 percent.

Nintendo also announced:
During the first nine months of the current fiscal year, consolidated worldwide shipments of 19 software titles for Nintendo platforms reached or surpassed 1 million units. These include three Wii titles, 13 Nintendo DS titles and three Game Boy Advance titles.
Nearly 1.4 million Wii hardware systems have connected to the Internet worldwide (as of 1/24/07)
Approximately 1.5 million Virtual Console games have been downloaded and sold to customers worldwide (as of 1/24/07)
More than 3.5 million unique users have enjoyed game play on Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for Nintendo DS, with far more than 100 million connections (as of 1/24/07)

The company held firm to its previous forecast for consolidated worldwide shipments of 6 million Wii hardware systems by the end of the fiscal year. Nintendo manufactured 4 million Wii systems by the end of 2006 and during that time sold and delivered 3.19 million to its distributors and retail customers around the world.

For Microsoft, video games have always been a money pit. Good thing the company has cash coming out the whazoo. In 2005, the company lost US $485 million, and for fiscal year 2006, it was out US $1.26 billion. Not exactly chump change.

According to Msoft, things are going to get better. One day. Entertainment and Devices Division prez. Robbie Bach said the company would be in the red again for fiscal 2007, but is expected to turn a profit in 2008. And if that doesn't pan out, there's always 2009, 2010 or 2011. Brian Ashcraft

More Here [GameSpot] Thanks, Jeffrey!

A blurb so short, we might as well just quote it:

Sony Corp. said on Thursday that it expected its game division to post a loss of about 100 billion yen in the current business year, hit by start-up costs for its PlayStation 3 game machine.

That's almost a billion dollars Sony is looking to lose to launch the PS3. And to think that many of us thought Sony would actually learn from the mistakes of Microsoft: don't sell your consoles at an insane loss and have enough of them at launch. Looks like neither will hold true.

Sony sees 100 bln yen game division loss for 06/07 [Reuters]

Coasting on the laurels of the DS and the DS Lite's popularity, Nintendo posted a profit of 95 billion yen ($808 million dollars). Even with the Gamecube as a stagnant third-place in last generation's console wars, the wild success of the DS has completely validated Nintendo's risky ventures. That Nintendo has done so well on what was considered an experimental handheld probably bodes well for their success with the Revolution.

One interesting comment in the Bloomberg article is that the wild success within Japan of the DS Lite caused Nintendo to sell handhelds meant for export. We wonder if that accounts for Nintendo's failure to announce an American DS Lite launch date officially.

Nintendo Full-Year Profit Gains on Stronger Dollar