Forbes.com has done some nice number crunching in order to shed some light on how Nintendo got the upper hand in the console market. First of all, bear in mind that both PS and XboX were there before Wii came about, and it was highly unlikely, even impossible for it to emerge a winner.

However, Nintendo has proven that it has what it takes, and with some use of clever math humiliated its superior competition. Superior? Not sure if you’ve forgotten, but from a purely technological standpoint, Wii can’t even hold a candle to PS3 or Xbox 360, as the latter have more advanced hardware capable of much more.

However, Nintendo is an old cat in the gaming business, and they know that it’s not only graphics, shading, etc., that sells games – games are about fun. Plus, when it comes to consoles and portable gaming, Nintendo can still teach these newbs on the market a thing or two.

The company basically aimed at more casual gamers, which are definitely greater in numbers than hard-core gamers, and offered them cheaper consoles with maximum fun factor. They also cleverly priced the games so that they appeal to more general public, and voila – competition skips crying and goes on trying to save their hides. It’s also worth noting that Nintendo makes a lot of titles themselves, unlike its competition, which accounts to 5-15% better margins.

As for the manufacturing side of things, Nintendo’s strategy was not making the whole thing in-house, but rather buying cheaper components, allowing it to sell at $260. It’s a well known fact that Sony basically loses money with each PS3 console, whereas Xbox 360 is close to even. Analysts claim that Nintendo makes about $6 per Wii console. Of course, that might not be much, but do some number crunching of your own and multiply the number of sold consoles and you’ll get the idea.

If you’re interested in a more detailed analysis, you can check out Forbes’s article here