Nintendo, which makes the Wii game console has become entered the top ten of Japan's most valuable companies for the first time with a value of 6.54 trillion yen ($53 billion).
Nintendo's Wii game console has outsold Sony's PlayStation 3 by three to one in Japan and by more than two to one in the US so far this year, according to game magazine publisher Enterbrain and research firm NPD.
Demand for its DS handheld game players also far outstripped that for Sony's PlayStation Portable.
Nintendo has offered a slew of innovative and easy-to-use game software such as 'Brain Age' and 'Nintendogs' for its hardware in recent years, broadening the game-playing population beyond young males to women and the elderly.
Sony, which has dominated the $30 billion game industry over the past decade with its PlayStation and PlayStation 2, saw a slow start for the PS3, launched late last year, due mainly to its high prices and lack of attractive software titles.
