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The story
Nintendo posted a net profit of ¥74 billion for Q2 of fiscal year 2026, while Sony’s PlayStation business posted ¥220 billion — nearly three times as much. The gap sparked discussion on 5ch’s hardware/industry (Geha) board. Early in the thread, posters raised the usual “different accounting, as always” point, noting that the two companies categorize their businesses and report earnings differently. From there the conversation branched into the real state of software sales, how dependent free-to-play titles are on microtransactions, and differences in revenue structure across platforms — including Xbox’s studio closures and mass layoffs. The simple question of “whose software is actually selling” never got settled, and the debate ended up being as much about how to read an earnings report as about the numbers themselves.
What people said
But how long are they gonna keep hiding the software losses from flops like Concord and "Arm Hair" (a 5ch nickname for another troubled PlayStation title)?
That's gotta be in the hundreds of billions of yen by now.
No way they can claim they've secretly been folding that in all along
🐷💢 "IT'S ALL FRAUDULENT ACCOUNTING!!!" (🐷 = "piggy," 5ch's derogatory nickname for Nintendo fanboys)
Sony's basically got GTA exclusivity going into Q3 — their profit's gonna be insane, right?
Might hit ¥300 billion?
If it hits ¥300 billion,
that's basically Nintendo's ENTIRE YEAR of profit lol
And that's with Nintendo counting movies and everything else in there
Wait, is that finally over?
Xbox's business is wild though —
it's a total black box,
no impairment write-downs or anything lol
Meanwhile PS took a real profit hit just from Bungie,
and Xbox just burns through ¥10 trillion of parent-company money lmaooo
Then why's
Call of Duty only 3%? lmaooo
That's really the only straw they've got left to grab, huh
the gap's just gotten way too huge lol
That logic is completely unhinged, but it flies in "piggy" circles lol
↓
Let's compete on profit! ← early Switch
↓
Let's compete on profit margin! ← late Switch
↓
???
Let's compete on scripture!
Now it's shifting to "good earnings don't even matter anyway"
The Switch 3 or whatever's gonna be stupidly expensive though, you sure about that?
The whale spending on Chinese gacha games is insane, as always 🥺
Huh? Weren't PlayStation players supposed to be nothing but free-loading beggars who never pay?
Just 10 titles bring in more than half of all PS Store revenue
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtTz1O3bMAE6FTS.jpg
And obviously there are plenty more microtransaction-driven titles beyond those 10, too
Basically it's turned into a lopsided market propped up by a tiny number of whales dumping huge money in
No wonder Sony's lost all motivation to actually develop games
https://business.4gamer.net/article/2106/21062501/TN/002.jpg
https://business.4gamer.net/article/2207/22072801/SS/003.jpg
https://www.phileweb.com/news/photo/hobby/64/6425/sony004.jpg
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/files/2024/05/Screenshot-2024-05-30-001040.png
https://news.mynavi.jp/article/newsinsight-374/images/005.jpg
They're not hiding anything, you just can't read an earnings report
Yeah, they half-developed that Last of Us Online thing and then scrapped it
Doesn't look like Part 3 is coming either
Intergalactic's probably coming next year or so
What about Xbox?
A rich man's hobby
On paper it looks way more profitable, but
they've closed studios and laid off tens of thousands of people,
capped cloud gaming at 15 hours a month,
it's kind of funny how the gaming division clearly isn't making money at all
Sony's own game development has been garbage lately
They rely way too much on Chinese gacha money and third parties
Are you not seeing Sony's ¥220 billion?
Sony's crushing it in software too
That's just Sony cooking the books, fabricated earnings
Ngl I actually reported that post
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Comparing the profit figures from Nintendo and Sony’s quarterly earnings is a recurring topic on the hardware/industry board every quarter, and it tends to come down to how differently the two companies’ businesses are structured. Nintendo’s earnings disclosures cover hardware and software sales for both its home consoles and handhelds, plus IP-related revenue such as movies and licensing. Sony’s “G&NS” segment, meanwhile, combines PlayStation hardware and software sales with network-service revenue and third-party royalty income. The thread’s recurring remark — “different accounting, as always” — was a reminder not to compare raw profit figures without accounting for these differences in business structure and accounting categories. At the same time, some posters pointed out that microtransaction revenue from free-to-play mobile titles makes up a large share of PlayStation Store sales, suggesting that revenue sources outside actual console software sales may be influencing the profit gap. It’s worth noting for readers that a simple comparison of profit totals alone can’t settle the question of which platform’s software is actually “selling” better.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch Hardware/Industry (Geha) board thread “Q2 Profit: Nintendo ¥74B, PlayStation ¥220B — Nintendo’s at a Third of That, lol — Proof the ‘Nintendo Piggies’ Don’t Even Buy Games lmaooo.”
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