Nintendo DS: Kicking Ass and Taking Names

I've always said it: Nintendo is to Videogaming what Dr. Dre is to Hip Hop; they rock their khakis with a cuff and a crease, and they reprazent for them gangstas all across the world. Despite the horrible friend code experience, world domination isn't too much to ask for. The Super Iwata Bros. couldn't be ress ronery considering they have blasted past initial sales forecasts of their hot little handheld DS and DS Lite. Kotaku caught my eye with the story posted on Reuters that basically outlined the company's sheer pwnage of leading competitor Sony on the handheld front.

In October (Nintendo) raised its sales forecast for the DS to 20 million units from 17 million for the year to March, while Sony cut its shipment target for competing PlayStation Portable by 25 percent to 9 million for the same period.

Those sales help boost an expected OPERATING PROFIT of close to $1.3 BILLION USD alone. Considering at least 4 million Wii units will be sold in North America alone before January with instant mark-up profit (versus $200 loss per unit for Sony) this success begs the question: Could the sheer Nintendo user base volume and potential cross-compatibility of the DS with Wii push Nintendo back to the top of the console race? Could this be the re-emergence of the 800LB Gorilla? If Microsoft has its way, probably not, but it definitely shows that Nintendo still knows how to play the game, still takin the time to perfect the beat, and they still got love for tha streets..