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Nintendo Announces Q1 Results - Cuts Profit Forecast 82%
- Thread starter Parmenides
- Start date
CarbonatedFalcon
Member
Vinci said:
Well that's pretty much obvious. And when your best game 4-5 months down the line from launch is a remake of a 1998 game...
Anyone else have a feeling that WiiU is gonna kill Nintendo as we know them today? Smartphones eating their lunch on handhelds, ms and Sony eating their lunch on console. Nintendo left with a stale cheese sandwich. That pokemon cellphone game may just be to test the waters for the future. They'd make bank if they removed hardware from the picture.
outunderthestars
Banned
thirty said:
I would personally love to see Nintendo go third party. I only buy their systems for the first party games so it would be one less console to have to buy...
outunderthestars
Banned
clashfan said:
So to counter that they released a handheld at a price higher than an iphone or ipod touch?
Quoted for what? The next gen machines from Sony and MS have a good chance of squeezing the WiiU out due to the tech gap and the handheld space has changed. I don't see how people here can just ignore all that and say Nintendo will be fine if they just keep doing what they do. They'll self destruct if they do. It's time to change. Either they need an app store that rivals apple and googles or they need to get on board with phone apps of their own. It's pretty obvious. Both Sony and ms have actually started leaning this direction themselves in the mobile phone space.
Cygnus X-1 said:
A little melodramatic, don't you think? If you're gonna conjure up the sixties, at least acknowledge the vast majority of gaming's life has been focused on simple, arcade style games. It's what the industry was founded on and it's what will always drive it. I've vacillated back and forth between arcade and epic styles, but simple is good. It's not some great menace that snuffs out Epic's breath when it sleeps. They can co-exist so long as Epic gets its shit in order. Dude's on an epic binge and he better watch himself.
ShockingAlberto
Member
With the exception of the DS, has there ever been a new generations of handhelds that were not just better graphics than the previous one?Vinci said:
I just don't seem to recall the doom and gloom that SNES-approximate graphics were going to kill the GBA.
This generation, Nintendo made ~$19 billion while Sony lost ~$4 billion and MS lost ~$1 billion. Having one unprofitable quarter (due to "R&D expenses and currency exchanges") is not reason to throw a hissy fit.thirty said:
Also, the Pokemon game you referred to is a free promotional spin-off, similar to previous non-Nintendo system Pokemon releases such as the Pokémon PC games, the free to play online game or the cell phone game from 2006.
LestradeTGQ
Neo Member
I would just like to calm the panic and cool the flames by reminding everyone that Nintendo has been in business for 113 years, and they do seem to be good at adapting to survive. I'd also like to remind folks that business (especially on this scale) in not decided in terms of weeks, or even months. Companies like Nintendo think in terms of years and more.
As others have said, Nintendo has made a shitload of money, and they continue to do so. They have a lot of cash. Do you think a decision like the 3DS price drop happens overnight? That Iwata just upended the financial tea table yesterday? All businesses operate with plans and contingencies. Remember that Nintendo figured that the original DS might fail; they were ready to absorb that if it happened; they can absolutely absorb this. They obviously projected better sales, and were overconfident in that regard; and clearly they weren't hitting targets, so this is plan B.
Woe is Nintendo, they may "only" make another couple billion dollars in profit by next spring.
Even if the 3DS proves to be an ultimate failure and it never picks up the momentum it lost, it is folly to think Nintendo is going to collapse overnight. They'll try again. If the Wii U tanks? They figure something out. Even if they're a very different beast than they are now in 10 years, I think they'll still be around and making money. Maybe it won't be in the way we as games players would prefer, but they will.
Hey, at least 2011 is turning out to be a dramatic and exciting year! Always new stuff to think about.
As others have said, Nintendo has made a shitload of money, and they continue to do so. They have a lot of cash. Do you think a decision like the 3DS price drop happens overnight? That Iwata just upended the financial tea table yesterday? All businesses operate with plans and contingencies. Remember that Nintendo figured that the original DS might fail; they were ready to absorb that if it happened; they can absolutely absorb this. They obviously projected better sales, and were overconfident in that regard; and clearly they weren't hitting targets, so this is plan B.
Woe is Nintendo, they may "only" make another couple billion dollars in profit by next spring.
Even if the 3DS proves to be an ultimate failure and it never picks up the momentum it lost, it is folly to think Nintendo is going to collapse overnight. They'll try again. If the Wii U tanks? They figure something out. Even if they're a very different beast than they are now in 10 years, I think they'll still be around and making money. Maybe it won't be in the way we as games players would prefer, but they will.
Hey, at least 2011 is turning out to be a dramatic and exciting year! Always new stuff to think about.
yurinka
Member
It's time to release as soon as possible Mario 3DS, in addition to some Pokemon and some new disruptive casual title like they did with Brain Training or Wii Fit in the past.
Because I don't believe a pricecut would be good for them.
Looking at the OP sales numbers, there is a general pattern : looks like their sales were growing until 2008 where they peaked and started to decline. This quarter just follows the pattern.
Because I don't believe a pricecut would be good for them.
It isn't just a quarter, and it isn't just a profit/looses thing.Jokeropia said:
Looking at the OP sales numbers, there is a general pattern : looks like their sales were growing until 2008 where they peaked and started to decline. This quarter just follows the pattern.
kame-sennin
Member
ShockingAlberto said:
The GBA was following the same software strategy as the GB. The types of games that were popular on the GB continued to be popular on the GBA. So there was no negative market reaction to a new console that continued a successful software strategy. With the 3DS, the visual improvement is causing a shift in the type of software that is being released. The popular 2D and pick-up-and-play games have been de-emphasized (or abandoned) in favor of games that show off the 3D effect.
As far as graphics are concerned, no one is saying that graphical improvement is bad. What people are saying (Iwata among them, back in '05) is that overshooting - improving any feature beyond the needs of the market, and using said feature as a major selling point - is bad. When the GBA was released, the graphical improvement was appreciated because it improved the quality of the games in a way that the majority of the market could appreciate. HD graphics and 3D are overshooting the needs of the market because the average customer is not motivated to buy products based on the improvements these features offer. There's a huge difference between introducing improvements that the market demands and introducing improvements that the market is apathetic towards.
Yes, it's just one quarter of losses. And the point is that Nintendo can get along fine even with relative failures like the N64 and GCN (which were both profitable). It's way to early to say anything about how the upcoming generation will turn out at this point, but Nintendo doesn't need a success equal to Wii in order to stay healthy.yurinka said:
OldJadedGamer
Banned
outunderthestars said:
Nah, look at what happened to Sega. They used to have shit awesome first party games then when they went third party they took a nose dive hardcore and haven't come back.
Nintendo needs to be the system maker.
yurinka
Member
I agree.Jokeropia said:
I think they are going down, but it's normal because they reached a really high place.
The question is how are going to perform 3DS and WiiU in a year or two. I think they won't reach current DS and Wii numbers, but I think they will perform ok, I think they will stop this pattern but not sure if too late.
3DS needs games and Wii U too with Mario 3DS as only huge console seller in the horizon. Same goes with the price, I doubt Wii U will be so cheap considering this controller screen.
Louis Cyphre
Banned
I wonder just how aggressive Nintendo will be with the pricing of the Wii U?
Version 3.0
Member
yurinka said:
You mean the same sales pattern as any console generation shows? That's not much to go by. I think Nintendo is "doomed" to a far lower level of success than they've enjoyed the last several years, but I doubt there's any reason to worry for the company as a whole.
mango drank
Member
mcfrank said:
I updated this with the crucial cause of Nintendo's problems. Yen strength, Sony, Microsoft... none of those matter compared to the App Store.
No, those dips are the global economy taking a nosedive. Look, Apple is overlaid here in red. It looks very similar to Nintendo. Apple's stock eventually picked up, but only about 9-10 months after the release of the iOS App Store.
I'm sure you can find plenty of other big tech companies (and non-tech companies) that followed this same decline in '08/'09.
Brera said:
Hopefully the way they acted with Wii/DS, abandoning their core, has taught them a lesson about the need to be audacious with your hardcore talents as well as their casual shit.
Just a bunch of new hardcore IPs with the marketing budget of a Wii Fit/Wii Sports, but the development budget of a Legend of Zelda... so sorely needed. Compete with the Sony's and the Microsoft's, but with Nintendo's development talent? Sony creates a billion new IPs each gen, but it costs money. Nintendo has it, they should have invested when their systems were blowing up.
How I wish that Nintendo would return, dropping phat new beats to the people who were there from the start. Not just cynically pandering to them with MARIO.BEEP.ZELDA.METROID.BLOOP.
MidnightScott
Banned
Does this mean we won't be getting any Wii games soon? Still no dates 
TheNatural
My Member!
Amir0x said:
Fans abandoned them before Nintendo decided to change their focus, it's not like they did it for the hell of it. The Gamecube and N64 sold like shit, even though there were some damn good games for it. Especially the Gamecube, which was cheap as all hell, even if it didn't have a ton of games it was well worth the mere $100 or so it was most of it's life to play some of those games. If people would have bought the Gamecube, the Wii era focus would have never happened.
TheNatural said:
We didn't abandon them. Nintendo's got the same core 30 million fans they've always had. It's just to get the rest, they have to be more than just Nintendo. They did that with Wii/DS - but they did it at the expense of us 30 million who always chill with them.
People always try to say that's not true, and to do that just throw off another list of Mario, Zelda and Metroid games. Yes some of these are still great games, but you can't rest on it forever. Just like Sony, they need to be creating a stable of new hardcore IPs each gen with big budgets that they push and develop. And with Nintendo's talent, they'd be unbeatable.
Hopefully Wii U represents a more balanced approach. If it's like Wii again, it's going to be hard to stomach. I want Mario, Zelda and Metroid, but not if that is the only damn thing Nintendo can ever make for us.
Father_Brain
Banned
David Gibson is livetweeting from Nintendo's supplemental results meeting in (I think) Tokyo. Looking forward to the transcript (I hope) tomorrow, though the lack of a presentation makes me wonder if we'll have to wait a bit longer than usual.
Louis Cyphre said:
ONE HUNDRED...AND ONE AMERICAN DOLLARS!!!!!!!!! Roughly translates to 164 Euros...whoooo!!!!!!!
Man, Nintendo really is between a rock, and a hard as fuck place. Hate to see it happen to them, but with all their bullshit DS SKU revisions, I'm sorry, I needed them to wake the fuck up. They need to go back to the good ol' haydays of the gameboy and N64, back when they made sense, and were appreciative of their consumers.
Well, the WiiU price is probably going to tell me where they stand now. It's going to be at TGS right? Maybe? Nah, probably not.
MidnightScott
Banned
StevieP said:
Oh. My. God.
What ever will he do with a million dollars instead of two million? How will he survive?
Seriously use that money to make some software for your systems.
TheNatural
My Member!
Amir0x said:
Well Gamecube sold about 20 million worldwide at a really cheap price and a lot of games. They had to do something, and pushing heavy hardware that Sony and Microsoft have been overall in the red in the gaming business isn't the way. Nintendo doesn't have music deals or Office products to comp losses. Microsoft lost enough with the original XBox and Sony lost enough with the PS3 to kill Sega several times over. The idea of new core franchises sounds good on paper - until you release those up against Call of Duty 12 and get your asses hammered.
richman555
Member
Most average folks don't think the 3DS is a new system at all.
Nintendo made a mistake releasing too many models of the DS.
Also they do not realize this system has actual 3D. People have been describing 3D graphics in gaming as 3D for many years.
If these issues weren't enough, the price is too high. Is this actually worth the price for the 3D effect?
Lastly, lack of good games that make you want to run out and buy a system. I love the Ocarina of Time 3D but that alone is not enough.
I think the price drop will help some of the issues, but they have to show this system as a good value with a good library of games.
Sony's Vita shows promise but it still will be expensive and the mature FPS games don't often translate well to a handheld. We will see.
Nintendo made a mistake releasing too many models of the DS.
Also they do not realize this system has actual 3D. People have been describing 3D graphics in gaming as 3D for many years.
If these issues weren't enough, the price is too high. Is this actually worth the price for the 3D effect?
Lastly, lack of good games that make you want to run out and buy a system. I love the Ocarina of Time 3D but that alone is not enough.
I think the price drop will help some of the issues, but they have to show this system as a good value with a good library of games.
Sony's Vita shows promise but it still will be expensive and the mature FPS games don't often translate well to a handheld. We will see.
MidnightScott
Banned
People aren't going to buy your system if they don't see games for it that they want. You expect them to buy a system for one game?
I don't know what happened but it seems like Nintendo is now taking hits like the rest of the Japanese game industry. Just cutting the price that much may continue to hurt them since they don't have software to back it up.
What happened to third parties already? :/
I don't know what happened but it seems like Nintendo is now taking hits like the rest of the Japanese game industry. Just cutting the price that much may continue to hurt them since they don't have software to back it up.
What happened to third parties already? :/
bigtroyjon
Member
He is taking a pay cut because they slashed profit forecasts by more than 80%. 3ds was a big reason for that.StevieP said:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2011/110729e.pdf
Nintendo's million sellers for the quarter.
Mario Kart Wii sold 1.22 million last quarter. Is now 28.23 million LTD.
Pokemon B/W sold 1.36 million. I snow 12.87 million LTD
Zelda:OoT sold 1.08 million.
Nintendo's million sellers for the quarter.
Mario Kart Wii sold 1.22 million last quarter. Is now 28.23 million LTD.
Pokemon B/W sold 1.36 million. I snow 12.87 million LTD
Zelda:OoT sold 1.08 million.
Tricky I Shadow
Banned
The Wii U is in quite a bit of trouble me thinks. I hope it really struggles (it will) so Nintendo wake the hell up.
MisterHero
Super Member
The 3DS price drop is really because it's the Secret Wii U controller
Zelda 8 Swords where you control 2 Links per player on 3 screens each
and yes you need 4 3DSes
Zelda 8 Swords where you control 2 Links per player on 3 screens each
and yes you need 4 3DSes
Father_Brain
Banned
More tweets from Gibson. A few of the points seem a bit garbled, but I guess that's what happens when you livetweet a conference like this.
Ether_Snake
å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®
Mobile phones, tablets, PCs, and streaming games is where it's at.
There's no turning back. All console manufacturers will either become part of that world or be left behind.
edit: Nintendo President Loses $500M in Single Day
There's no turning back. All console manufacturers will either become part of that world or be left behind.
edit: Nintendo President Loses $500M in Single Day