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Nintendo to cut summer bonuses by 20 percent : Nikkei

AniHawk

Member
Forgive my ignorance, but weren't they saying that it's tracking better than the DS was at launch? I don't know the actual numbers, but were they full of it when they said that?

the ds had a fucking awful launch. the vita isn't doing as bad as the ds ever did.
 
It's also still their fault to as well. The issue is still games or the lack of them of all types. They should have known they'd have no significant western support. Not because their games don't sell but because they just don't care about hand helds. What carried all of their hand helds were Japanese games and they are not being released outside of Japan fast enough. Even at E3 this was not addressed and the one bone we got Fire Emblem was only because Reggie slipped up.

Well, in Nintendo's defense, the handheld titles that sell well in Japan aren't often titles that will sell well in the West.
 
Jesus Christ is anyone actually making money in the industry? I just see losses and poor sales for Sony, Nintendo, ms, vita, 3ds, people down on a lot of 3rd parties, down on wiiu and ps4 and Xbox 720. Just a shitty time right now
 

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
It's also still their fault to as well. The issue is still games or the lack of them of all types. They should have known they'd have no significant western support. Not because their games don't sell but because they just don't care about hand helds. What carried all of their hand helds were Japanese games and they are not being released outside of Japan fast enough. Even at E3 this was not addressed and the one bone we got Fire Emblem was only because Reggie slipped up.

Wonder if the horrible foreign exchange rate has played a significant role in them leaving NoA and NoE out to dry.
 

RagnarokX

Member
LZWJ.jpg


"I like the way you think Ronito"



yamauchi-e1332306788289-564x393.jpg


"Ah, I see. So you want more plastic peripherals."



Hiroshi_Yamauchi_photo.jpg


"Release the hounds".
Well, Yamauchi's basic strategy was to throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. He took a trip to the US to see the world's biggest playing card manufacturer and got disappointed when he saw how small the operation was. He had R&D come up with a ton of ideas for new directions. He nearly bankrupted Nintendo until Gunpei Yokoi saved his ass with the ultra hand and cemented Nintendo's direction as a toy company.
 
Nintendo must have been caught off guard with how quickly Wii Sales died off. It seems like there was a massive lull in first party Wii software, and yet Wii-U software seems to be almost non-existent at the moment.
 

Ydahs

Member
Don't think things are going to get better for them. Highly doubt Wii U has any chance of success on the same level as Wii. They can hope for Gamecube level sales at best. Motion controls are now done by everyone and touch screen controls are just a gimmick done to try and replicate their success with Wii. They created the thing and haven't even shown a compelling reason to even have a touch screen controller.

Really? You don't think it will sell over 22 million worldwide?
 
How is it more companies dont do this? The top brass at nintendo taking a pay cut because they under performed seems like something logical and shows some good faith to stockholders that they know they have to do better, especially considering how well executives are paid, especially in the west.
 
I could see Wii U selling half or less of Wii's numbers if things go badly enough.

GC numbers? Not likely. Worst case scenario is 40 million or so WW LTD, I'd say.
 

boiled goose

good with gravy

yeah.
basically nintendo was dominating the world during the peak of DS + Wii but failed to capitalize on it by expanding or securing their position.
Their conservative fiscal culture was not good in this case when they were sitting in that much cash.

look at what google has done with their success in search engines and online advertising. chrome, android, etc.
 
Nintendo must have been caught off guard with how quickly Wii Sales died off. It seems like there was a massive lull in first party Wii software, and yet Wii-U software seems to be almost non-existent at the moment.
And also how 3DS didn't take off.

The problem is that, current size of operations of Nintendo are almost tailored to the success dates of DS and Wii; but now they have all the operating costs of those days (marketing, employees, research, etc.), yet the sales are not nearly that good.


And I don't see 3DS sales ever reaching DS, particularly on the software side. Wii U, maybe reaches Wii, maybe.
 
yeah.
basically nintendo was dominating the world during the peak of DS + Wii but failed to capitalize on it by expanding or securing their position.
Their conservative fiscal culture was not good in this case when they were sitting in that much cash.

look at what google has done with their success in search engines and online advertising. chrome, android, etc.

I really wish Nintendo had gone out and bought a few more studios. They have great IP, but not enough staff to properly develop it for multiple platforms.
 
It's also still their fault to as well. The issue is still games or the lack of them of all types. They should have known they'd have no significant western support. Not because their games don't sell but because they just don't care about hand helds. What carried all of their hand helds were Japanese games and they are not being released outside of Japan fast enough. Even at E3 this was not addressed and the one bone we got Fire Emblem was only because Reggie slipped up.

I totally agree about western devs and handhelds. Its pathetic compared to the quality efforts of the Japanese. FE not being at e3 is probably just because it isnt coming out here this year. They have several major hitters and honestly dont need it this fall and holiday.
 

Effect

Member
Really? You don't think it will sell over 22 million worldwide?

It really depends on how the games after launch and leading into next year do. Nintendo Land is not Wii Sports. Wii Sports and the newness of the Wii remote was much easier to explain and show off. They banked a lot on that. Anything can happen. Look at Sony and the PS3 coming off the PS2. Nintendo and the GameCube vs the Wii. This is theirs to lose I think.
 
Really? You don't think it will sell over 22 million worldwide?

Hard to say. How much would Wii have sold if Kinect and Move were out at the same time? The majority of the people that bought the Wii won't be buying the Wii U. The motion controls of the wii were revolutionary at the time and it became a fad due to that, since it was cool to have at parties and you could get gamers who normally didn't play games to partake in the motion control stuff. That same thing won't be happening because of a touch screen controller.
 
Hard to say. How much would Wii have sold if Kinect and Move were out at the same time? The majority of the people that bought the Wii won't be buying the Wii U. The motion controls of the wii were revolutionary at the time and it became a fad due to that, since it was cool to have at parties and you could get gamers who normally didn't play games to partake in the motion control stuff. That same thing won't be happening because of a touch screen controller.

But you don't know this either way. This is not a fact, unless you have a hidden time machine that you need to share.
 
I really wish Nintendo had gone out and bought a few more studios. They have great IP, but not enough staff to properly develop it for multiple platforms.

Agreed. Third-parties cannot be relied on for exclusives. With costs so high, multiplatform is the only business model that makes sense for them.

But exclusives are what sell hardware. Nintendo should've seen how the Wii was going in 2008 and reinvested heavily in studios that could match their development culture, even if those studios produced games radically different than Nintendo's (like Rare or Retro).

When those moves should've been made, I feel Nintendo was still in love with its own success. They probably felt they could ride the casual boom forever (witness E3 2008).

Now, they've got an HD console, but it will likely experience the same drop off with support once the PS4rango comes out, and the Wii U loses ports. Once again, Nintendo will be left supporting two platforms, and they just don't have the sheer quantity of games or studios to do that.
 
Half of Wii owners clearly only bought it for the Wii remote and Wii Sports and bought nothing else. Except maybe Wii Fit.

That may be true, but nobody knows the future. Look at just that, how Wii did. No one predicted that. Hell, I was one of the naysayers, though perhaps not to the extremes that I saw here.
 
But you don't know this either way. This is not a fact, unless you have a hidden time machine that you need to share.

The majority of people bought it because of the motion controls. Now that is done by every company. It is safe to assume that the majority of these people won't be buying a Wii U. We saw Nintendo sales before Wii with Gamecube. Obviously the videogame market is larger now than during the Gamecube era, but with new Sony and Microsoft systems in the pipeline for next year I just don't see this thing making a huge mark on the videogame market.
 
source? The Wii had a pretty damn impressive attach rate...

It was a sarcastic response to the 'Gamecube' level sales and the 'Half of Wii user-base won't buy Wii U' comment.

The majority of people bought it because of the motion controls. Now that is done by every company. It is safe to assume that the majority of these people won't be buying a Wii U. We saw Nintendo sales before Wii with Gamecube. Obviously the videogame market is larger now than during the Gamecube era, but with new Sony and Microsoft systems in the pipeline for next year I just don't see this thing making a huge mark on the videogame market.

If it's cheaper than hypothetical competition, offers comparable 3rd party games and is out at least 12 months earlier, it's got a chance.
 

Darryl

Banned
The majority of people bought it because of the motion controls. Now that is done by every company. It is safe to assume that the majority of these people won't be buying a Wii U. We saw Nintendo sales before Wii with Gamecube. Obviously the videogame market is larger now than during the Gamecube era, but with new Sony and Microsoft systems in the pipeline for next year I just don't see this thing making a huge mark on the videogame market.

I think you're underestimating how fast the tablet market is growing. This hardware is jumping in at just the right time. I don't see how your assumptions aren't safe at all.
 
If it's cheaper than hypothetical competition, offers comparable 3rd party games and is out at least 12 months earlier, it's got a chance.

Problem is it's coming out against a cheaper(most likely) PS3 and Xbox 360 at the time with comparable looking games at best and worse looking games for the most part at launch. Who's going to jump in on this besides diehard Nintendo fans? Again, maybe the touch screen controller will be some mega hit, but I just don't see it happening, especially with no compelling reason for it to exist at launch.
 
I think you're underestimating how fast the tablet market is growing. This hardware is jumping in at just the right time. I don't see how your assumptions aren't safe at all.

The people that want a tablet are buying an android tablet or Ipad.
 
The majority of people bought it because of the motion controls. Now that is done by every company. It is safe to assume that the majority of these people won't be buying a Wii U. We saw Nintendo sales before Wii with Gamecube. Obviously the videogame market is larger now than during the Gamecube era, but with new Sony and Microsoft systems in the pipeline for next year I just don't see this thing making a huge mark on the videogame market.
So what do you propose Microsoft and Sony will be offering that will sway owners to purchase their systems? This gen proved that the general consumer can't fully be swayed solely by improved graphics and they don't have HD and Blu-Ray to tote around as new features anymore.
 
So what do you propose Microsoft and Sony will be offering that will sway owners to purchase their systems? This gen proved that the general consumer can't fully be swayed solely by improved graphics and they don't have HD and Blu-Ray to tote around as new features anymore.

Graphics and improved ai and animation due to the stronger power of the systems has always been a selling point from generation to generation. It happened again this generation when people moved from the PS2 and Xbox to the 360 and PS3. The only thing holding it back from destroying PS2 level numbers is the price. Being at $249 and $199 6 years into a generation is ridiculous. The wii was an anomoly as it offered a gameplay experience unmatched on other consoles due to motion controls. It also was at a much lower price point than the competition. Improved graphics and other things like AI and animation being improved will sell the next generation of consoles just like it has every generation.
 

ASIS

Member
Hard to say. How much would Wii have sold if Kinect and Move were out at the same time? The majority of the people that bought the Wii won't be buying the Wii U. The motion controls of the wii were revolutionary at the time and it became a fad due to that, since it was cool to have at parties and you could get gamers who normally didn't play games to partake in the motion control stuff. That same thing won't be happening because of a touch screen controller.

You do realize that many households only have one TV in them, especially Japan right? The fact that the console comes with its own screen is a huge asset, couple that with the brand name, system sellers, and a very competitive price, and the whole "doom and gloom" doesn't sound so true. Will it be as successful as the Wii? Highly unlikely. But saying people won't be the WiiU because of that is not accurate enough. I think it will all depend on the software, just like every console before it.
Graphics and improved ai and animation due to the stronger power of the systems has always been a selling point from generation to generation. It happened again this generation when people moved from the PS2 and Xbox to the 360 and PS3. The only thing holding it back from destroying PS2 level numbers is the price. Being at $249 and $199 6 years into a generation is ridiculous. The wii was an anomoly as it offered a gameplay experience unmatched on other consoles due to motion controls. It also was at a much lower price point than the competition. Improved graphics and other things like AI and animation being improved will sell the next generation of consoles just like it has every generation.

Historically speaking the console with the most advanced hardware rarely sold the most.
 
Problem is it's coming out against a cheaper(most likely) PS3 and Xbox 360 at the time with comparable looking games at best and worse looking games for the most part at launch. Who's going to jump in on this besides diehard Nintendo fans? Again, maybe the touch screen controller will be some mega hit, but I just don't see it happening, especially with no compelling reason for it to exist at launch.

This is true. But, two of Nintendo's biggest franchises are coming out in the launch window. Uncharted games, as a series combined, haven't sold as much as Wii Fit Plus. Maybe they won't strike that pot of gold again, but at least they're trying.
 

Terrell

Member
Inevitable cries of going 3rd party?
He said he wanted to know what will happen a few years from now, not what's happening today.

How is it more companies dont do this? The top brass at nintendo taking a pay cut because they under performed seems like something logical and shows some good faith to stockholders that they know they have to do better, especially considering how well executives are paid, especially in the west.

That's kind of the point, I think. It's a temporary measure to increase good will with investors, and possibly to attract new ones to a company they didn't know was socially-responsible. All this, plus a little self-punishment.

Reminds me of the 'Wii will only sell to the 22 million Nintendo fans who bought the GameCube!" claim from days of yore.

I still laugh at people who think it'll fail and try to remember if they were the same people claiming you could walk into any store after launch and buy a Wii. I'm sure there's a few parallels there.
 

donny2112

Member
I still laugh at people who think it'll fail and try to remember if they were the same people claiming you could walk into any store after launch and buy a Wii.

Ding-Ding-Ding!

Edit:
Actually, I think he just parroted that line so much that I thought it was him saying it. He was actually telling people that Nintendo fanboys were so rabid that they wouldn't be able to walk in and get one. Check out this thread.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123690
 
I still laugh at people who think it'll fail and try to remember if they were the same people claiming you could walk into any store after launch and buy a Wii. I'm sure there's a few parallels there.

Kinda like the people that thought the Wii train would last as long or longer than the 360/PS3, only to see it crash and burn suddenly and swiftly. Probably explains why the Wii U is getting such a bad launch. Nintendo wasn't expecting the crash either.
 

grandjedi6

Master of the Google Search
ds sales were so bad that nintendo bundled gba and ds sales together for a few months in 2005. one month we actually got ds standalone numbers: 59k.

I remember that. And then the next year Nintendo/NPD couldn't do proper year growth/decrease for each system because of it.
 
Kinda like the people that thought the Wii train would last as long or longer than the 360/PS3, only to see it crash and burn suddenly and swiftly. Probably explains why the Wii U is getting such a bad launch. Nintendo wasn't expecting the crash either.
To be fair, in any other generation, if it were any other company's console, those sales would have prompted a lot of new third party development announcements and the sales would have become self-sustaining just on the back of a steady slate of releases.

For various reasons, that didn't happen with the Wii and Nintendo simply cannot sustain a release schedule by themselves.
 

Dunan

Member
I get a bonus at the end of the year if I'm lucky. How does Japan work when it comes to salary and bonuses?

For a traditional Japanese company, think of bonuses the way Westerners working in the service industry think of tips: basically part of the salary (which would be an underpaid wage without them). Just as 15% is standard and you never tip zero unless there was a real problem, in Japan a small bonus is still given out unless the company is really in dire straits. Typically you get 1/15 or 1/16 of you annual pay each month, with the rest at bonus time.

(My somewhat-Westernized company moved off the bonus system a few years ago, paying us 1/12 of our annual pay every month, but they still hand out a token "incentive bonus" of ¥100,000 or so once a year.)
 
Hard to say. How much would Wii have sold if Kinect and Move were out at the same time? The majority of the people that bought the Wii won't be buying the Wii U. The motion controls of the wii were revolutionary at the time and it became a fad due to that, since it was cool to have at parties and you could get gamers who normally didn't play games to partake in the motion control stuff. That same thing won't be happening because of a touch screen controller.

You act as if software will have nothing to do with the Wii U's appeal, much as it did the Wii. It wasn't the motion controls as much as it was a combination of the accessibility of Wii Sports and the simple controls.
 
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