Nintendo expects limited losses from Wii launch
One advantage Nintendo consistently has over its competitors is that it refuses to sell its hardware at any significant loss. Microsoft lost about $4 billion dollars on the originial Xbox, and Sony admits they plan on losing quite a bit of money on the upcoming PS3.
Nintendo said on Wednesday that it does not expect to lose much money on the launch of the Wii, which comes as no surprise. Sony is likely to lose 100 billion yen ($884 million) at the beginning of its console's life, but plans to make that money back through software sales.