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[KageMaru]

Why not? Sounds like good marketing to me. In fact Nintendo just tried to pull that one didn't they??

Probably were sold out in places. Just remembered going to our local store around launch to check it out and a friend of mine snapped one up. Wasn't like Wii level, where there literally weren't any available anywhere for months. US may have been different of course.

Edit: This is really irrelevant to the thread though. I'm not having a pop at 360 or anything.

Well everything that's been said about shortages has been in reference to the US market. So yeah that could effect the experience.

Still, the OP used NPD numbers to form his opinion, so I think it makes sense to look at the topic in that context.

Edit:

I'd like to pose a serious question. What do you think nintendo will do if Wii U doesnt get the support it needs for 3rd parties to hang on? PS4 and 720 come along, set the world on fire, Wii U fails to catch on for various reasons but Nintendo still releases its own 1st party games. IMO at worse Wii U could do worse than gamecube. If this happens will it even make financial sense for nintendo to produce 1st party titles? Or would they scrap the whole project and start fresh in 3 or 4 years kinda like the original xbox?

They will likely try to do what they could to make the hardware profitable. Cost of manufacturing is usually tied to things like die size and yields associated with that size. Smaller die sizes is an option but the yields would likely suffer, which would actually drive cost of the hardware up. So they can do what they could to improve yields for 32 or 28nm, which would eventually drive the cost of manufacturing down and hopefully make the hardware profitable at it's current price.

By doing this, they should do ok with their 1st party titles and what 3rd party titles they do receive. This is assuming the hardware and software sell though.

MS dropped the Xbox so fast because they would have never profited off the hardware and couldn't continue to compete with Sony in price. The same isn't true for Nintendo and the Wii-U.

 

[Kimawolf]

I'd like to pose a serious question. What do you think nintendo will do if Wii U doesnt get the support it needs for 3rd parties to hang on? PS4 and 720 come along, set the world on fire, Wii U fails to catch on for various reasons but Nintendo still releases its own 1st party games. IMO at worse Wii U could do worse than gamecube. If this happens will it even make financial sense for nintendo to produce 1st party titles? Or would they scrap the whole project and start fresh in 3 or 4 years?

I think they do what they should had done years ago; set up their own eco system of games and second party developers. They should be doing this anyway because its obvious there are some major western Developers/publishers won't make games for their systems, no matter the reason ( rather its omg we hate Nintendo from the 90s, Nintendo teh Kiddie, our games can't sell/compete or just pure, we don't see it working out), the bottom line is they simply won't do it. So they need to develop their own ecosystem of first and second parties with select 3rd parties and push and court hard indie developers and niche PC developers to cover the different genres. Stop wasting time hoping some random 3rd party will maybe bring you their game late and just make your own versions. That'd require them to open more studios but in the end it'd be worth it vs paying who knows how much money for a port of ME3 that doesn't come with the first two.

Because there is one thing Nintendo can do better than just about anyone, make games fun. I believe they can put their guiding hand in some smaller studios, a bit of financing and create very good "core" series that will fill the gaps left by 3rd parties.

 

[kinggroin]

Long ass thread. Not sure why, but I'll just reply to the OP.

Nintendo is NOT doomed

Wii U is NOT selling well.

You can't compare this launch to any other.

 

[Road]

Road, you can add Wii European launch sales to the mix as well at 700K.

Thanks, but we have to wait until Nintendo releases a PR about the Wii U European launch, if they ever release one...

 

[Pachterballs]

I'd like to pose a serious question. What do you think nintendo will do if Wii U doesnt get the support it needs for 3rd parties to hang on? PS4 and 720 come along, set the world on fire, Wii U fails to catch on for various reasons but Nintendo still releases its own 1st party games. IMO at worse Wii U could do worse than gamecube. If this happens will it even make financial sense for nintendo to produce 1st party titles? Or would they scrap the whole project and start fresh in 3 or 4 years kinda like the original xbox?

less champagnes bottles being popped at Nintendo HQ while they think of the next blue ocean market to tap.

what would be best for gamers is

Spoiler

if they went third party and sold the wiiU controller as an addon and made games for PS4+720

spec bump. nominal costs for gamers. everyones a winner.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

At what point does this narrative about a super secret NDA preventing announcements cease?

It's not a 'narrative' and it's not 'super secret NDAs' preventing announcements.

It's how nintendo are handling their release announcements now, for whatever reason.

Why didn't they announce CODBLOPS as a 'near launch' title at E3 with the other titles they announced? Why didn't they announce FIFA?

These were big name third party titles, but they were absent from the release schedule for months.

Nintendo are now using Nintendo Direct for the majority of their important announcements. Maybe they think their marketing departments in NOA and NOE are shit too.

 

[metalslimer]

The CoD Black Ops and Fifa thing are actually easily explainable. I'm pretty sure MS had CoD Black Ops exclusive for 360 at E3 and I believe they did not show the PS3 version at all. FiFa was probably ported in a couple of months and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't eve ready to be shown at E3. Sure, Nintendo is obviously holding back their games, but at this point there is no evidence of a 3rd party moratorium on announcing games. The same logic was used for Vita, well obviously Sony is holding back their games for E3..er Vita Heaven....er TGS...until it became plainly obvious that there wasn't some flood Sony was holding back. I look forward to new Nintendo announcements though.

 

[BlackJace]

less champagnes bottles being popped at Nintendo HQ while they think of the next blue ocean market to tap.

what would be best for gamers is

Spoiler

if they went third party and sold the wiiU controller as an addon and made games for PS4+720

spec bump. nominal costs for gamers. everyones a winner.

Jesus, give it a rest already.

 

[guek]

What is this based on?

Oh just current trends. Gaming revenue is down for the 2nd or 3rd year in a row, all the recent gaming hardware launches have struggled one way or another. mobile and ios becoming such a juggernaut, etc. I'm not making a conclusive statement, merely just outlining a possibility. We wont know how things are for certain until the next round of hardware launches.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

at this point there is no evidence of a 3rd party moratorium on announcing games

What the dilly-o was happening with Scribblenauts in Europe (on PC too) was held back for news that Nintendo had taken over publishing in Europe.

Also when directly questioned about CODBLOPS for WiiU at E3 journalists were given a 'no comment' - thats a pretty amazing (and strange) exclusivity deal MS managed to score, that Treyarch were not allowed to mention one specific platform but talk freely about another, while showcasing the handheld version on a third.

As for FIFA; if Nintendo aren't drip feeding release information, as little effort as I think EA have made with the WiiU, I find them doing a port in a couple of months highly unrealistic, unless the WiiU is so easy to port to that it can only bode well for the future

EDIT:
Although obviously if no announcements do get made, nintendo genuinely do have fuck all of a lineup for this year.

 

[OryoN]

Wii U could certainly do better... but to say those sales indicate its doom is quite a stretch.

In addition to the OP, I will also add that PS2 existed in an era with a much healthier economy and considerably less competition from consumer electronic devices. Given the tougher circumstances, I'd say the Wii U is doing decently, of course there's lots of potential to do better, both currently(with beter advertising) and in the future(with more & better software).

Many of the same people proclaiming Wii U to be a disaster, are the same ones that are hoping the next Xbox/PS will do so much better. They are the ones lacking perspective, both in terms of how distortedly they view Wii U sales, and also how loftily the set expectations for the coming consoles. Consider this: The next Xbox and PS will be launching in an unprecedented hot bed of media devices - all competiting for consumer attention/$$. The outlook only gets worse when you consider the very likelihood that both consoles will be more expensive than the premium Wii U (may God help them if they launch @ $500+). This is all in an economy much worse off than the begining of this current gen. Yet, people are so preocupied with their Wii U doom prophecies, that they apparently haven't considered what kind of expectations they are holding other consoles up against.

So basically, if Wii U is such a disaster sales wise(which it really isn't), and either of those next consoles does worse... prepare for a GAF meltdown of epic poportion. It's almost like people are setting themselves up for massive dissapointment with this one. I'll be here to document it.

 

[Bony Manifesto]

The CoD Black Ops and Fifa thing are actually easily explainable. I'm pretty sure MS had CoD Black Ops exclusive for 360 at E3 and I believe they did not show the PS3 version at all. FiFa was probably ported in a couple of months and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't eve ready to be shown at E3. Sure, Nintendo is obviously holding back their games, but at this point there is no evidence of a 3rd party moratorium on announcing games. The same logic was used for Vita, well obviously Sony is holding back their games for E3..er Vita Heaven....er TGS...until it became plainly obvious that there wasn't some flood Sony was holding back. I look forward to new Nintendo announcements though.

Yeah, Nintendo are obtuse enough to want to keep their forthcoming titles under a veil of secrecy (for whatever reason), but I can't imagine they'd swear third parties to the same oath of silence. Although, if they do, it might go some way to explaining why third parties don't want to work with them!

 

[metalslimer]

What the dilly-o was happening with Scribblenauts in Europe (on PC too) was held back for news that Nintendo had taken over publishing in Europe.

Also when directly questioned about CODBLOPS for WiiU at E3 journalists were given a 'no comment' - thats a pretty amazing (and strange) exclusivity deal MS managed to score, that Treyarch were not allowed to mention one specific platform but talk freely about another, while showcasing the handheld version on a third.

As for FIFA; if Nintendo aren't drip feeding release information, as little effort as I think EA have made with the WiiU, I find them doing a port in a couple of months highly unrealistic, unless the WiiU is so easy to port to that it can only bode well for the future

I guess we'll just have to see.

 

[Byakuya769]

Holy shit. Nintendo is still a highly profitable company. Just because the ds and wii lit the world ablaze doesn't mean GameCube levels of failures means they need to go software only. Gaf is getting weird.

 

[Coloress_Kafka]

Holy shit. Nintendo is still a highly profitable company. Just because the ds and wii lit the world ablaze doesn't mean GameCube levels of failures means they need to go software only. Gaf is getting weird.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/2012_04.html

Nope

 

[AzaK]

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/2012_04.html

Nope

What made them drop so much? Is the expansion they are doing that expensive, was it the 3DS loss or are they hiding a tonne of titles in development that we don't know about.

On the surface to go from such profit to the first ever gaming full year loss seems like something really fucked up somewhere?

 

[guek]

What made them drop so much? Is the expansion they are doing that expensive, was it the 3DS loss or are they hiding a tonne of titles in development that we don't know about.

On the surface to go from such profit to the first ever gaming full year loss seems like something really fucked up somewhere?

Wii and 3DS were just much weaker than expected. During the good years, they were raking in money hand over fist with Wii and DS hardware. They were cheap to make and sold with a good mark up. But 3DS and Wii U R&D and their launches with the absence of a stable, healthy platform to help prop things up really hurt their wallet. I think they were expecting 3DS success to offset Wii U costs for 2012 but obviously that didn't happen.

 

[KageMaru]

What made them drop so much? Is the expansion they are doing that expensive, was it the 3DS loss or are they hiding a tonne of titles in development that we don't know about.

On the surface to go from such profit to the first ever gaming full year loss seems like something really fucked up somewhere?

Launching a console is expensive. =P

 

[Orayn]

What made them drop so much? Is the expansion they are doing that expensive, was it the 3DS loss or are they hiding a tonne of titles in development that we don't know about.

On the surface to go from such profit to the first ever gaming full year loss seems like something really fucked up somewhere?

My impression is that it's generally unspectacular software performance, 3DS sales only being okay-ish outside of Japan, and Wii sales completely falling off a cliff. Compounding that, the strong yen really, really hurts when so many of your sales are overseas in weaker currencies.

And yeah, there's the obvious culprit of the Wii U's R&D budget.

 

[M3d10n]

I imagined Wheatley from Portal 2 reading the thread title (with the sound of pages being flipped) and chuckled.

 

[jcm]

What made them drop so much? Is the expansion they are doing that expensive, was it the 3DS loss or are they hiding a tonne of titles in development that we don't know about.

On the surface to go from such profit to the first ever gaming full year loss seems like something really fucked up somewhere?

The wii collapsed early. The 3ds was supposed to earn profits to cover the development of the wii's successor, but has instead been a money loser. And here we are.

 

[axisofweevils]

What made them drop so much? Is the expansion they are doing that expensive, was it the 3DS loss or are they hiding a tonne of titles in development that we don't know about.

On the surface to go from such profit to the first ever gaming full year loss seems like something really fucked up somewhere?

Also, the Yen has been really strong. That seems to have hurt them a lot, when they've tried to deal with money internationally.

 

[Nightstick11]

I already added in my two cents about the Wii U sales, but I just had a question for some of the Nintendo-haters: Why do you assume Nextbox and PS4 will "doom" Nintendo? Wouldn't it make more sense to say Nextbox or PS4? Do people seriously expect both of those consoles to take off and dreamcast the Wii U?

 

[Steve Youngblood]

And, just to be clear, because you and Steve Youngblood aren't very good with non-binary posting stances, that doesn't mean I don't think they won't have any problems with third parties.

Hmm... difference in perspectives. I tend to favor nuanced discussion in general. However, I find you annoyingly passive aggressive in your pithy rhetorical questions and nitpicks, and generally find analytical discussions with you tedious.

But, you know, different perspectives.

 

[TreasureHunterG]

Sales-wise isn't that bad, but profits-wise... we're talking another language. I want to see the Fiscal Year Ending results this year. Something very interesting can come out of it.

 

[shinra-bansho]

It's not a 'narrative' and it's not 'super secret NDAs' preventing announcements.

It's how nintendo are handling their release announcements now, for whatever reason.

Why didn't they announce CODBLOPS as a 'near launch' title at E3 with the other titles they announced? Why didn't they announce FIFA?

These were big name third party titles, but they were absent from the release schedule for months.

Nintendo are now using Nintendo Direct for the majority of their important announcements. Maybe they think their marketing departments in NOA and NOE are shit too.

GTAV, Bioshock, Dark Souls 2, Remember Me, Dead Space 3 etc. are not "their" announcements to make. There is no launch to take into account now either, that could factor into announcement timing. There is no reason for Rock*, 2K Games, From Software etc. to hold back their announcements of secret Wii U SKUs, beyond subscribing to the idea that they're under the sway of Nintendo's ninjas.

 

[Gannd]

less champagnes bottles being popped at Nintendo HQ while they think of the next blue ocean market to tap.

what would be best for gamers is

Spoiler

if they went third party and sold the wiiU controller as an addon and made games for PS4+720

spec bump. nominal costs for gamers. everyones a winner.

You understand that the Wii U pad wouldn't work as well being attached to the other consoles, right? It isn't like the U Draw Tablet that THQ released.

 

[FacelessSamurai]

People are trying to read too much in these sales number. I enjoyed my 360 when it was just released, just as my PS3 and Wii when I got them. Wii U is doing decent numbers, and like people have said we are in a different situation as last gen. I mean, who would have thought Nintendo would have problems selling a handheld system, seriously? But hey, it happened with the 3DS. You might say it was an underpowered and overpriced handheld, but so were the GBA and DS for what they offered and still they sold well! Times have changed, thanks to all of the IOS and Android crap on the market, and those companies are now fighting for shares. A lot of people I know now prefer to game on their iPads or Nexus 7s at home instead of their consoles. I do believe that the 720 and PS4 might have better sales numbers, but that will all depend on the price and how much they are willing to lose on hardware at launch. And looking at both companies right now (more Sony than Microsoft), I doubt that they can afford it so I think people should get ready to pay the 500$+ launch prices. And I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo can lower the price to 300$ for the premium bundle by that point.

I think we need to wait until next Christmas to really see if it is doomed or not. Looking at how Nintendo has turned it around with the 3DS there is no doubt in my mind that they can do the same with the Wii U and make it work. For now though let's just enjoy our Wii U and look forward to a potentially great generation of new consoles!

 

[Darryl]

What made them drop so much? Is the expansion they are doing that expensive, was it the 3DS loss or are they hiding a tonne of titles in development that we don't know about.

On the surface to go from such profit to the first ever gaming full year loss seems like something really fucked up somewhere?

all of the above

 

[Crapitalism]

If the company feels the system is underperforming you can bet they'll ramp up the advertising and announce their trump cards we all know they have up their sleeves.



I try to pinpoint whenever it became popular to hate on Nintendo / forecast their demise.

 

[KageMaru]

GTAV, Bioshock, Dark Souls 2, Remember Me, Dead Space 3 etc. are not "their" announcements to make. There is no launch to take into account now either, that could factor into announcement timing. There is no reason for Rock*, 2K Games, From Software etc. to hold back their announcements of secret Wii U SKUs, beyond subscribing to the idea that they're under the sway of Nintendo's ninjas.

On top of that, keeping these announcements secret would leave less time for pre-orders and damage appeal of the system itself. The Wii-U would look more attractive if GTA V, Crysis 3, Destiny, and other big titles were on the horizon.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

On top of that, keeping these announcements secret would leave less time for pre-orders and damage appeal of the system itself. The Wii-U would look more attractive if GTA V, Crysis 3, Destiny, and other big titles were on the horizon.

Yeah. Honestly, I wouldn't be entirely shocked if there weren't a surprise or two in store because of Nintendo's dubious strategy. But I'm mainly expecting bombs to be dropped on the first party front. On the third party front, I'm expecting something, but I'm expecting the overall picture to remain pretty bleak. I don't buy for one second that NDAs are preventing a deluge of third-party software from being announced, and even pleasant surprises to be more along the lines of late ports.

 

[metalslimer]

If there are secret 3rd party games I expect them be more along the line of Bayonetta where Nintendo is publishing a game exclusively or new Nintendo IPs farmed out to 3rd parties like The Last Story.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

If there are secret 3rd party games I expect them be more along the line of Bayonetta where Nintendo is publishing a game exclusively or new Nintendo IPs farmed out to 3rd parties like The Last Story.

Or something like that, yes.

 

[LOCK]

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/2012_04.html

Nope

Yes one year down out of 60 or so. They are very profitable overall as a company, and most companies would kill to have their profit margins.

 

[lwilliams3]

Yeah. Honestly, I wouldn't be entirely shocked if there weren't a surprise or two in store because of Nintendo's dubious strategy. But I'm mainly expecting bombs to be dropped on the first party front. On the third party front, I'm expecting something, but I'm expecting the overall picture to remain pretty bleak. I don't buy for one second that NDAs are preventing a deluge of third-party software from being announced, and even pleasant surprises to be more along the lines of late ports.

At the least, I'm expecting some good support from Capcom, Ubisoft, Activision, and Sega. Namco, Square-enix and other Japanese companies may also give the Wii U some support due to Nintendo's stronger presense in the East. After the praises that Frostbyte gave the Wii U, there will probably get good support from indie developers as well.

 

[metalslimer]

Yes one year down out of 60 or so. They are very profitable overall as a company, and most companies would kill to have their profit margins.

It should be interesting though. Ever since Nintendo entered the industry they have had a strangle on at least one sector of it. When there consoles started the downturn with the N64 the gameboy was explosive and the GBA was even more so. I'll be interested to watch their profit margins now that their handheld business in the west is no longer as strong as it was.

At the least, I'm expecting some good support from Capcom, Ubisoft, Activision, and Sega. Namco, Square-enix and other Japanese companies may also give the Wii U some support due to Nintendo's stronger presense in the East. After the praises that Frostbyte gave the Wii U, there will probably get good support from indie developers as well.

Do you mean multiplatform support? I can see there being some announcements up until the PS4/Durango come out, but if Wii U 3rd party sales don't become extremely impressive and their is even the slightest difficulty in downporting I think it will probably dry up.

 

[Nerdstrom]

I already added in my two cents about the Wii U sales, but I just had a question for some of the Nintendo-haters: Why do you assume Nextbox and PS4 will "doom" Nintendo? Wouldn't it make more sense to say Nextbox or PS4? Do people seriously expect both of those consoles to take off and dreamcast the Wii U?

Pretty much. There will literally be a generational gap. The hardcore have been waiting for 2 years now for new hardware, developers have been waiting for new hardware. At current spec IMO Nintendo needed to release the wii U 2 years ago.

 

[lwilliams3]

It should be interesting though. Ever since Nintendo entered the industry they have had a strangle on at least one sector of it. When there consoles started the downturn with the N64 the gameboy was explosive and the GBA was even more so. I'll be interested to watch their profit margins now that their handheld business in the west is no longer as strong as it was.



Do you mean multiplatform support? I can see there being some announcements up until the PS4/Durango come out, but if Wii U 3rd party sales don't become extremely impressive and their is even the slightest difficulty in downporting I think it will probably dry up.

Ubisoft, Sega, Activision, and Ubisoft didn't abandon the Wii this generation, so I don't think it is likely for them to do it now. It should also be easier to deal with downports compared to what they had to do with Wii games, so it is possible that the Wii U will have a somewhat higher support to some of them for that reason alone.

As for Capcom, I think the company would have ported games to the Wii if it could have ran their game engines on it. As a reference, they were able to get RE5 running on the 3DS, but apparently had trouble doing it on the Wii. That is how a real RE game and a SSF4 ended up coming to the 3DS.. but not on the Wii. That is the difference the ability to run modern shaders can make.

 

[UberTag]

Unlike Sega, Nintendo's first-party IP are so strong it won't matter that the WiiU is a technical dinosaur compared to the upcoming Microsoft/Sony successor systems.

Nintendo will do just fine. The WiiU will be the #1 console in Japan (not that that's much to crow about) and they'll be fuelled by their 1st-party titles to carve out a niche for themselves elsewhere while buoyed by a strong 3DS worldwide.

The WiiU will deservedly get the worst Western 3rd-party support of any Nintendo console in history and we'll be dependent on Atlus/NIS/XSEED/Nintendo to bring over some of the bigger non-Nintendo 3rd party offerings from Japan... but Nintendo will be fine. Depending on what Sony brings to the table, they may even finish 2nd in North America.

 

[lwilliams3]

Unlike Sega, Nintendo's first-party IP are so strong it won't matter that the WiiU is a technical dinosaur compared to the upcoming Microsoft/Sony successor systems.

Nintendo will do just fine. The WiiU will be the #1 console in Japan (not that that's much to crow about) and they'll be fuelled by their 1st-party titles to carve out a niche for themselves elsewhere while buoyed by a strong 3DS worldwide.

The WiiU will deservedly get the worst Western 3rd-party support of any Nintendo console in history and we'll be dependent on Atlus/NIS/XSEED/Nintendo to bring over some of the bigger non-Nintendo 3rd party offerings from Japan... but Nintendo will be fine. Depending on what Sony brings to the table, they may even finish 2nd in North America.

If you are defining "worst" as the smaller number of 3rd party games, it would be very hard not surpass the N64.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Hmm... difference in perspectives. I tend to favor nuanced discussion in general. However, I find you annoyingly passive aggressive in your pithy rhetorical questions and nitpicks, and generally find analytical discussions with you tedious.

But, you know, different perspectives.

Obviously the day I corrected one of your posts made a big impression on you.

But for me, it was a tuesday.

GTAV, Bioshock, Dark Souls 2, Remember Me, Dead Space 3 etc. are not "their" announcements to make.

Of the titles you just listed, the only one that plausibly has a chance to be released for the WiiU is Remember Me.

On top of that, keeping these announcements secret would leave less time for pre-orders and damage appeal of the system itself. The Wii-U would look more attractive if GTA V, Crysis 3, Destiny, and other big titles were on the horizon.

GTA is never going to be on the WiiU given the one spin off they released for a Nintendo platform bombed. Likewise EAs current position on the WiiU and Cryteks statements about that means Crysis 3 won't either, unless something changes.

Destiny however I can plausibly see being announced when its release dates are announced which AFAIK hasn't happened yet.

Bear in mind, from Nintendos perspective, announcements of games that have already been announced for other platforms seem to count for them as new announcements.
If they haven't got much for the rest of the year - which historically, Nintendo consoles often have first year droughts - the reason they might be holding announcements back is so that they don't just go completely silent on buyers.

At the least, I'm expecting some good support from Capcom, Ubisoft, Activision, and Sega. Namco, Square-enix and other Japanese companies may also give the Wii U some support due to Nintendo's stronger presense in the East. After the praises that Frostbyte gave the Wii U, there will probably get good support from indie developers as well.

Yes, this is my thinking too.
I wouldn't be surprised if they pick up some 'never been on a nintendo console before' enhanced / 'best of' titles as single disk re-releases, or HD collections too to help pad out the initial library. This would be a low risk publisher strategy to test the waters.

Unlike Sega, Nintendo's first-party IP are so strong it won't matter that the WiiU is a technical dinosaur compared to the upcoming Microsoft/Sony successor systems.

Sega's IP portfolio is probably the best in the industry after Nintendos (and it's certainly up there with Capcoms); their problems were the razor blade console model where every console sold cost them money combined with laughably easy piracy destroying their software recuperations.
They also started the PS2 gen in an extremely bad financial position. Although there are some parallels with the general public overlooking the DC in favour of the unfulfillable promise of the PS2 and it's old man head demo / toy story graphics promises etc.

 

[spwolf]

Yes one year down out of 60 or so. They are very profitable overall as a company, and most companies would kill to have their profit margins.

how can they be profitable if they are not profitable? They will be profitable again if WiiU and 3DS start selling like Wii and DS... otherwise, they wont.

 

[electroplankton]

I already added in my two cents about the Wii U sales, but I just had a question for some of the Nintendo-haters: Why do you assume Nextbox and PS4 will "doom" Nintendo? Wouldn't it make more sense to say Nextbox or PS4? Do people seriously expect both of those consoles to take off and dreamcast the Wii U?

People also assume that PS4 and Nextbox will be flawless platforms, with an attractive price for all gamers, and AAA games since day one.

 

[AOC83]

how can they be profitable if they are not profitable? They will be profitable again if WiiU and 3DS start selling like Wii and DS... otherwise, they wont.

Nah. I don´t think they need Wii/DS sales to get profitable again, would be incredibly stupid to calculate like this. On the other hand the WiiU and the 3DS are selling considerably worse than Nintendo thought they would and they probably won´t get out of the red numbers for a long time to come.

 

[farnham]

I think they do what they should had done years ago; set up their own eco system of games and second party developers. They should be doing this anyway because its obvious there are some major western Developers/publishers won't make games for their systems, no matter the reason ( rather its omg we hate Nintendo from the 90s, Nintendo teh Kiddie, our games can't sell/compete or just pure, we don't see it working out), the bottom line is they simply won't do it. So they need to develop their own ecosystem of first and second parties with select 3rd parties and push and court hard indie developers and niche PC developers to cover the different genres. Stop wasting time hoping some random 3rd party will maybe bring you their game late and just make your own versions. That'd require them to open more studios but in the end it'd be worth it vs paying who knows how much money for a port of ME3 that doesn't come with the first two.

Because there is one thing Nintendo can do better than just about anyone, make games fun. I believe they can put their guiding hand in some smaller studios, a bit of financing and create very good "core" series that will fill the gaps left by 3rd parties.

I agree with this notion. They need to vastly increase their first party lineup by buying studios and ofcourse through collaboration with 3rd parties. If they can increase their software output by, say double the release that they had on wii, their platforms would have been a lot more successful for them and people wouldnt be moaning about lacking perspective even if they release no information.

 

[spwolf]

Nah. I don´t think they need Wii/DS sales to get profitable again, would be incredibly stupid to calculate like this. On the other hand the WiiU and the 3DS are selling considerably worse than Nintendo thought they would and they probably won´t get out of the red numbers for a long time to come.

to be profitable as they were, sure they do need to sell a lot of new hardware.
Nintendo doesnt have any other business but gaming.

hopefully things turn around for them.

 

[StoppedInTracks]

Hey OP, I will bump this very thread when January NPD comes out and Wii U falls below 200k. I hope you will still be here (not banned). Then I will do the same when February NPD comes out and it sells less than 100k. Fun times ahead.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

I agree with this notion. They need to vastly increase their first party lineup by buying studios and ofcourse through collaboration with 3rd parties. If they can increase their software output by, say double the release that they had on wii, their platforms would have been a lot more successful for them and people wouldnt be moaning about lacking perspective even if they release no information.

The thing about that is that would pretty much concede they're never going to get any Western third party support. Many Western third party publishers already operate under the fallacy 'only nintendo games sell on nintendo systems', having a whole bunch of studios directly competing with their efforts is going to move them from apathy to hostility.

I'm also not sure it's in the consumers best interest to only have games available from a platform holder in perpetuity.

EDIT:

Hey OP, I will bump this very thread when January NPD comes out and Wii U falls below 200k. I hope you will still be here (not banned). Then I will do the same when February NPD comes out and it sells less than 100k. Fun times ahead.

Do you want to post 'non-doomed' first quarter sales estimations for the next Xbox and PS so he can do the same for you?

 

[CadetMahoney]

Who wants 3 identically featured consoles with mostly the same games ?

Speaking of which, for "next gen" ppl want both consoles to be on parity to appease third parties. smh.