Although the name Nintendo is most closely associated with a video game platform (the NES), the company's real focus has always been the games rather than the platform. Therein lies the real distinction between Nintendo and its two biggest rivals. Nintendo seeks to make good games. Microsoft and Sony seek to control a distribution channel. Nintendo is the only company among the three console makers that started life as an entertainment company - and it shows. Microsoft is known for its software; Sony is known for hardware; and Nintendo is known for its games. American gamers are familiar with the Nintendo brand; but American investors generally know very little about the company. This is unfortunate, because for all the attention paid to Sony and Microsoft's video game operations, Nintendo is the ultimate pure-play video game company. Nintendo is an interesting company to write about from an investor's perspective for several reasons. The company operates in an exciting sector with excellent long-term prospects. It's more reasonably priced than many public companies in this sector (although that's not saying much). It is a truly unique company (with a unique history) and it has a clear vision of what it is and what it is not. Clearly, Nintendo's formidable intellectual properties add to its appeal both as the subject of an article and as an object of interest to an investor. Nintendo has been a good steward of its intellectual properties. She took great care to protect the image of her most beloved characters. In fact, some would argue that the company has sometimes been too protective of its most powerful franchises. For example, between 1994 and 2002, there were no new Metroid games, despite the popularity of that franchise. The advantage of such a strategy is that when Metroid Prime was released in 2002, it received extraordinary reviews and sold over a million units. The downside of this approach is obvious. Nintendo effectively forfeited revenue (almost certainly more than $100 million) that could have been made from the franchise throughout the latter half of the 1990s. Nintendo is an entertainment company; not an electronics company. Console sales are inextricably linked to game sales. Hardware sales make up a large portion of Nintendo's total sales; However, hardware sales do not represent a large portion of Nintendo's total sales. At Nintendo, games sell consoles. Of course, the console itself can affect the gaming experience in its role as a console.