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[neoanarch]

While this hyperbole isn't useful, Nintendo really does need to address that sliding stock price. Putting games on phones is hardly the answer, but some drastic steps are needed. Neither the 3DS or the Wii U have improved the stock price in over a year, and that might not matter to many, but you're not allowed to slide that far that fast.

Nintendo will probably just buy up its own shares if it drops too low. They have the cash to survive.

 

[schuelma]

By this weird logic, if Sony comes tomorrow, and announces an underwhelming 1st and 3rd party line-up, but reveal plans for their still-mysterious PS Suite initiative, and how they plan on putting their games on smartphones and smartphone games on their gaming devices, they'd be lauded as visionaries.

Crazy.

Exactly.

 

[gofreak]

By this weird logic, if Sony comes tomorrow, and announces an underwhelming 1st and 3rd party line-up, but reveal plans for their still-mysterious PS Suite initiative, and how they plan on putting their games on smartphones and smartphone games on their gaming devices, they'd be lauded as visionaries.

Crazy.

It is probably smart though. 'Casuals' are fickle, if you want to reach them you probably are going to want to follow them where they go rather than expecting them to come to your proprietary, single-use system. You can still do your dedicated system thing for the hardcore.

 

[Dali]

Systems don't sell much on potential.

Is MH that big of a franchise anywhere besides Japan?

 

[1-D_FTW]

Just to be sure, I was checking the bigger vg news sites and browsing the thread here, but Nintendo DID NOT announce a new model of the 3DS with the second circle pad built in - Correct?

No. Anyone expecting that was naive. It would have completely destroyed their holiday sales. If it's coming, it'll be announced early next year with a likely launch by March.

 

[Refreshment.01]

Perfect timing...

I predict much crow eating after the holiday season.

I think the point these type of media outlets are trying to make, although in an overly pessimistic way, is that Nintendo won't be a market leader anymore. We won't see any more ventures as successful as the Wii or DS from them.

And it looks like this will be the case. Nintendo will be profitable still, but not like in its better years.

 

[eastmen]

this is why nintendo should have been using the profits from the past generation to buy back shares and delist itself

 

[French]

Good article.

 

[Calcaneus]

I'm not, but I have a feeling the people saying this don't really give a damn about games or nintendo, they just want to turn a profit on their stock.

They don't. They care about what sells. Nintendo showed a lot of stuff that would get us excited, but if these guys don't see the next potential phenomenon like Wii Sports, they'll speak up. That's why they praised the Wii for years while a lot of gamers were starving for releases.

 

[PKrockin]

I know my history. Feel the magic/Project rub and trauma centre defined the difference between a gameboy and the DS. They defined how games would play on this new system. They may not have been great, but they were groundbreaking.

Nintendo DS: November 2004 US / December 2004 JP / February 2005 EU
Trauma Center: October 2005 US / June 2005 JP / April 2006 EU

1 year.

 

[Corleth the Fey]

Did investors buy Nintendo stock by the shit-ton when Brain Training was announced?

So what do they know? Only that casuals are heading to smartphones and Nintendo (rightly) aren't.

 

[Drkirby]

Bingo.

Heck, sony made a phone for the android. They are at least testing the waters. Making the apps exclusive to the phone though. Well, they better keep that thinking no longer then 4-6 months after the phone becomes dated.

Sony is an Electronics Company first, a games company is like the 4th thing they are. I would say they are a bigger movie company then a games company.

Nintendo makes just Video Games and things related to them, and small amounts of playing cards. They are a games company though and though.

 

[angelfly]

Were there articles like this during the warm up period of the DS?

 

[Erethian]

Nintendo would easily have the most recognizable games on the app store, and they'd probably get away with charging $10-15 in the face of $1 competition.

They should pull a swerve and start making Android games exclusively, fuck Apple's shit up pretty good.

I sort of doubt that. Nintendo would need to completely restructure their internal development teams for iOS development. A lot of Western companies have found out how difficult it can be, so they just buy developers already experienced in the area instead.

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

I think the point these type of media outlets are trying to make, although in an overly pessimistic way, is that Nintendo won't be a market leader anymore. We won't see any more ventures as successful as the Wii or DS from them.

And it looks like this will be the case. Nintendo will be profitable still, but not like in its better years.

Did you read the article? The scope of it goes well beyond, "they'll still be good just not as good."

 

[erpg]

Were there articles like this during the warm up period of the DS?

Nobody cared, because Nintendo was coming out of the GCN era, when their stock was shit anyway.

http://www.google.com/finance?cid=685139

 

[Mael]

Define "flop". I'm guessing Reuters and normal, non-lobotomised people have different meanings for the word.

Because what the 3DS launch could be called a success? I mean really?

 

[BlazingDarkness]

By this weird logic, if Sony comes tomorrow, and announces an underwhelming 1st and 3rd party line-up, but reveal plans for their still-mysterious PS Suite initiative, and how they plan on putting their games on smartphones and smartphone games on their gaming devices, they'd be lauded as visionaries.

Crazy.

Well that's incorrect, Sony don't have the problem with trying to maintain the Wii/DS audience interest, which is what investors are clamouring for. Sony only ever went for the hardcore market and that's what the Vita will be doing, following the PSP.

 

[Hot Coldman]

Because what the 3DS launch could be called a success? I mean really?

There is a middle ground. It's a lot harder to be a flop then some people make out. The Virtual Boy was a flop. This is not.

 

[confused]

Nintendo DS: November 2004
Trauma Center: October 2005

1 year.

You are right, replace Trauma centre with Wario ware. then. The argument is that they had launch software that showed off what was so special about the DS.

The DS was a revolution, the 3DS merely an evolution, and to investors that is not interesting enough.

 

[markot]

The thing about analysts.... there seem to be no repercussions when they are at best right 50% of the time >_>

"Well, folks, when you're right 52% of the time, you're wrong 48% of the time."
"Why didn't you say that before!"

 

[Derrick01]

I'm not getting the enjoyment that I wanted out of Nintendo (sort of) flopping. Probably because everyone's cheering for Apple to replace them, and I hate Apple far more.

 

[SmokyDave]

Nintendo DS: November 2004 US / December 2004 JP / February 2005 EU
Trauma Center: October 2005 US / June 2005 JP / April 2006 EU

1 year.

What about Project Rub and the minigames in Mario 64? Were they out at launch?

That's what hooked me into the DS early on, interacting with games directly on a touchscreen, it hadn't happened before. I don't think I got mine on launch day but it certainly wasn't long after.

 

[stilgar]

Or Nintendogs on the iPad, Pokemon on your phone (better connectivity than Nintendo would ever offer on their systems).

Is it that bad?

Nintendogs could maybe be sold for 2-5$. Pokemon? Zelda? Mario? You tell me.

 

[Metal Gear?!]

Gabe's got a point that Nintendo has not only failed to address, but reponded to by making their games MORE expensive.

If that's not going in the wrong direction I don't know what is.

 

[dark10x]

This seems premature. Have we learned nothing from Nintendo's past? The 3DS hasn't been a success thus far, but it's far from a flop. The DS wasn't exactly lighting up sales charts during its first year or life either, though, so there is still plenty of time for a recovery.

 

[Chuck Norris]

"buy on rumors, sell on news"

Generally that only applies if the news isn't good or inconsequential

 

[ruxtpin]

No. Anyone expecting that was naive. It would have completely destroyed their holiday sales. If it's coming, it'll be announced early next year with a likely launch by March.

I guess I'll hang on to my aqua system until that time and hope for the best. I'll be damned if Nintendo thinks I'm going to lug around a chunk of plastic to play some of these newer games. I'll hang on to what games I do have and maybe buy a few that aren't really dependent on 2 sticks; just bide my time.

 

[Luckyman]

SONY HAS INFLATRATED REUTERS

 

[Calcaneus]

Nintendo fucked up by thinking that 3D would be enough to interest the casuals. Its the most gimmicky, non-forward thinking "innovation" that they've come up with in a long time.

 

[erpg]

Nintendogs could maybe be sold for 2-5$. Pokemon? Zelda? Mario? You tell me.

Well, a Mario ROM collection wouldn't go for 30$, thats for sure.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

Crazy statements based on nothing.

 

[Lonely1]

What if they're not wrong?

No, seriously, can you even imagine that possibility?

They are. Do you really see Nintendo being better of by being a third party iOS developer? Or that they could manage a non disastrous launch of an android phone/tablet or whatever?

 

[The_Darkest_Red]

http://i.imgur.com/dputa.jpg
Gabe's got a point that Nintendo has not only failed to address, but reponded to by making their games MORE expensive.

If that's not going in the wrong direction I don't know what is.

Nintendo is addressing the issue by positing that all of these games they are announcing are worth the price of admission. In the case of some of them, Fire Emblem being a perfect example, I couldn't agree more.

We won't know how the rest of the world responds until some of these big games hit. If all of them "fail" then Nintendo will have to address the issue in another manner, but as for now they're sticking with Plan A.

 

[Plinko]

One of the worst articles I've seen written, and I've been extremely critical of Nintendo recently.

The games lineup is what will actually bring people over FROM the DS. Incredibly naive to think otherwise.

So far, people have had almost no reason to switch over. Now, they will. If this new game lineup fails and the holiday season is a bust (which I would highly bet against), then Nintendo has an issue.

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

Why do we need 2 nearly identical threads?

 

[1-D_FTW]

Did investors buy Nintendo stock by the shit-ton when Brain Training was announced?

So what do they know? Only that casuals are heading to smartphones and Nintendo (rightly) aren't.

So you think abandoning the casual market and returning to the exclusive hardcore Nintendo fan market is going to allow them to continue posting the insane profits they had during those last five years? If this is the case, if the casual market doesn't matter, how come their stock has been driven off a cliff in the last year?

 

[DarkKyo]

Omg what do news people not get? PEOPLE WHO LIKE NINTENDO DON'T WANT TO PLAY ON A GIMP-ASS PHONE. Mobile phone gaming was dumb as hell ten years ago and it is honestly not much better now.

 

[GloomyHitsuji]

Oh, their stocks went down?
I guess the investors just found out about Sony's bomb tomorrow then...

Spoiler

I kid

 

[Dr.Palutena]

Gabe's got a point that Nintendo has not only failed to address, but reponded to by making their games MORE expensive.

If that's not going in the wrong direction I don't know what is.

The real problem that they and the other two face, is that they have a fixed pricing structure ,when there is no reason that games on their consoles couldn't be sold at varying prices .

 

[BlazingDarkness]

This thing needs a revision, QUICK.

 

[Jinfash]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/imgly_production/1989264/large.jpg[IMG]


This thing needs a revision, QUICK.[/QUOTE]
I personally think it looks attractive, that's just not a good angle.

 

[Erethian]

This seems premature. Have we learned nothing from Nintendo's past? The 3DS hasn't been a success thus far, but it's far from a flop. The DS wasn't exactly lighting up sales charts during its first year or life either, though, so there is still plenty of time for a recovery.

There's a lot of atmospherics around the whole iOS issue that tend to cloud the reality, and in those circumstances people don't usually take a long term view to see how it'll pan out before reacting.

 

[supersaw]

I sometimes wonder if all the talk about Nintendo moving to mobile platforms or whatnot is ever fully thought through.

Like, the idea that you can take a business model that relies on selling $40 or $50 games on your own hardware, with all the benefits that entails, the whole design philosphy and budgets that go behind that, and transplant it into mobile/tablet games.

You know those $40, $50 titles oft-times don't have the development costs that warrant that type of retail price right? Maybe the market is now reflecting that given the success of smartphone games and it's resulting in poor performance for dedicated handhelds in the West. I believe Japan will be an entirely different kettle of fish but in the West the fate of dedicated handheld consoles is going to play out after the Vita launch and Nintendo's 1st party drop.

 

[Busty]

In a subdued Tokyo conference hall on Tuesday, an appearance by the company's star game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto, wielding a toy sword and shield raised a laugh, but a series of 3DS game images depicting Miyamoto and Iwata as a pair of young lovers was met with silence.

Wut.

 

[Holy Order Sol]

Good article.

Now that's some diligence.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

So you think abandoning the casual market and returning to the exclusive hardcore Nintendo fan market is going to allow them to continue posting the insane profits they had during those last five years? If this is the case, if the casual market doesn't matter, how come their stock has been driven off a cliff in the last year?

I think the Nintendo fan market and Japanese market (If they have exclusively taken games like Monster Hunter, Kingdom Hearts, etc) is fairly large. They probably won't hit DS sales, but they should end up selling 100m+ 3DSs.

 

[Cipherr]

SONY HAS INFLATRATED REUTERS

They will toss shit at Sony too eventually when the Vita hits and isnt immediately moving a million consoles a month. There is just a major push going on right now from folks who insist mobile phone gaming is/will kill handheld gaming consoles. They cant really argue that when the handhelds are doing well and at their peak.

But at the end of a gen, when the handhelds momentum is slowing, and a new one launches starting the userbase from 0 (meaning no games can break out and consistently top sales charts) it is prime time to push this nonsense. So here it is.

That combined with the fact that the DS and Wii really rode high with the media due to their casual gaming at the start of this gen. So the media was proclaiming Nintendo won E3's where they only showed BS montage videos and sales charts while MS and Sony went balls to the walls game announcements. Well, the other shoe is dropping now, those same outlets are going to freak unless there are a millions casual games.

 

[slaughterking]

This thing needs a revision, QUICK.

I dunno. I'm already getting used to it. :lol

 

[SmokyDave]

They are. Do you really see Nintendo being better of by being a third party iOS developer? Or that they could manage a non disastrous launch of an android phone/tablet or whatever?

I believe Nintendo could comfortably profit from iOS without damaging their core brand.