Research reveals that Nintendo's Market Value has increased since February 2005.

DFC Intelligence have released their latest piece of research on the game industry, revealing how all game companies have fared from February to December. The first piece of news is that the industry itself has grown by 7 percent, and as Nintendo always say, an increase in gamers is always a good thing.

Nintendo have had a fairly successful year, with a growth of 15 percent since last February. With their current market value of $18,565, Nintendo are worth the fourth highest amount of money in the industry, trailing only behind Microsoft, Sony and Vivendi. EA, however, had a disappointing year with a drop of 17 percent.

The article also discussed what's coming in 2006, and what's happening on store shelves. They report that the Nintendo DS is doing very well in stores, while the PSP's space is focused too much on UMDs, rather than games.

"The biggest disappointment we have found so far is what we would consider to be very weak merchandising for the Sony PSP. Many stores have displays for the Nintendo portable systems, but not the PSP. What is worse is the tendency for stores to have a larger selection of UMD movies than PSP games. Furthermore, the movies are often mixed right in with the games. The portable battle is likely to get very interesting over the next two years."