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[watershed]

it's an observation. people are able to make observations based on company history, market trends, and financial reports

i'm right. if you have a response other than "you are just saying words" then please feel free, make your arguments

So your observation is that Nintendo or Iwata doesn't care about much outside of Japan? What kind of argument is that for a global company? You don't think he cared when the Wii and DS dominated all regions?

I already gave you my version. Nintendo has a japan-centric philosophy when it comes to designing videogame hardware and software. They seem to believe that their philosophy will be successful globally, as the Wii and DS were. This generation, they are wrong.

But I would never say that Nintendo ,a global company, "doesn't care" about markets outside of Japan. It's a hyperbolic comment that isn't useful to discussion in a thread about sales/markets.

 

[Nekofrog]

So your observation is that Nintendo or Iwata doesn't care about much outside of Japan? What kind of argument is that for a global company? You don't think he cared when the Wii and DS dominated all regions?

I already gave you my version. Nintendo has a japan-centric philosophy when it comes to designing videogame hardware and software. They seem to believe that their philosophy will be successful globally, as the Wii and DS were. This generation, they are wrong.

But I would never say that Nintendo ,a global company, "doesn't care" about markets outside of Japan. It's a hyperbolic comment that isn't useful to discussion in a thread about sales/markets.

they really don't care about markets outside of japan. japan is their #1 concern and they've convinced themselves that if they build a product for japanese consumers that it automatically has global appeal.

see square enix for the same mindset

it's not a hyperbolic comment, just look at the actual system design of the wii u. small form factor, ultra low power consumption, tablet controller for off-tv play. this thing was designed with japan and only japan in mind and they are paying dearly for it.
this is one of the pillar reasons that nintendo is nosediving in profit and their market outside of japan has been contracting fairly consistently.
it's a very real and very present mindset at nintendo right now. "japan first, others later (or never)" and it is having a severe negative impact on their bottom line.

i mean jeeze, you state that iwata makes himself head of NoA so it has better oversight. a japanese businessman living and working in japan has a better idea of how to run nintendo in the western world than any number of CEOs born and bred in the western market.

 

[prag16]

Nintendo not pursuing a version of Minecraft for the Wii U is insane and shows how out of touch they are. It's a massive success among kids and the crafting mechanic would be a perfect showcase for the GamePad. The retail version has entrenched itself into the top 10 in both the US and Europe for months, but since it doesn't sell in Japan and didn't come from the likes of Activision or Ubisoft, they completely ignore it.

I agree with this. They are absolutely NUTS for not pursuing this sooner (assuming the talk of them pursuing it more recently is serious). It should have launched on Wii U around when the PS3 version launched, if not sooner. Absolutely batshit insane.

 

[NeonZ]

they really don't care about markets outside of japan. japan is their #1 concern and they've convinced themselves that if they build a product for japanese consumers that it automatically has global appeal.

The Wii U isn't exactly a success in Japan either though...

 

[numble]

It's a shallower hole now? I'm not trying to say they're doing well. I just don't get the level of surprise in this thread, or the "even Mario Kart can't save Nintendo" comments, as if one game was going to turn around the Wii U's fortunes in a single month. The 3DS fall off is probably the biggest story here.

How is a larger operating loss year over year a shallower hole? Their operating loss is almost double compared to a year ago, and this doesn't include the foreign exchange loss. They performed worst than Nintendo itself or Wall Street expected, resulting in a big drop in their share price after results were announced.

 

[Nekofrog]

The Wii U isn't exactly a success in Japan either though...

that's why it's so ironic

 

[Y2Kev]

I really feel like every quarter it is accounting 101 for the same people. I almost suspect it is intentional!

Nintendo has structural issues in the business.

It's not "marketing" (advertising). The markets for their core products are significantly shrinking. They know that, hence the diversification away from being a monoline business into health products. I don't know why the truth is so painful here. Nintendo already gets it. #iwatawasrightjustnotbecauseofwhyyouthink

 

[watershed]

they really don't care about markets outside of japan. japan is their #1 concern and they've convinced themselves that if they build a product for japanese consumers that it automatically has global appeal.

see square enix for the same mindset

it's not a hyperbolic comment, just look at the actual system design of the wii u. small form factor, ultra low power consumption, tablet controller for off-tv play. this thing was designed with japan and only japan in mind and they are paying dearly for it.

I don't want to be pedantic, but do you see a difference between these two statements? A difference that could influence how we discuss Nintendo's financial state and business operation?

A. Nintendo has a japan-centric philosophy for videogame hardware and software development. i already said this in a previous comment.

B. Nintendo doesn't care how well or poorly its products perform outside of Japan. This is what you said earlier and seem to want to support.

Yes, Nintendo believes their videogame systems and software have universal appeal. This view was validated by the universal appeal and universally positive sales of the Wii and DS hardware and software. But this has not been true for the 3ds and Wii U. There are any number of reasons that explain why these two products are not selling well. But Nintendo "not caring" about the North American market or any other is not one of them.

 

[LegendofLex]

They haven't?

What leads you to say that?

You're kidding, right? If you look at the 3DS and Wii U businesses, the real depressing story is not so much the poor hardware sales. It's the poor software sales, which have seen an even steeper decline from last gen than we're seeing on the hardware. This suggests that not only is the software failing to sell the hardware (that is the entire point of first-party software) - the software is also failing to sell to existing hardware owners. In other words, there's pretty low engagement, though the way Nintendo talks makes it seem like it's better than it is. And obviously the software environment is failing to generate a healthy ecosystem for more software. It's a death spiral, and it's one that EAD - as the primary source of major software for the ecosystem - is basically completely responsible for.

 

[Wickerbasket]

Drawing a line of best fit on that graph looks very depressing for Nintendo next gen.

If you ignore the success they had with the fickle Wii blue ocean market, then the trend for Nintendo consoles has been a shrinking user base.

 

[Bony Manifesto]

I don't want to be pedantic, but do you see a difference between these two statements? A difference that could influence how we discuss Nintendo's financial state and business operation?

A. Nintendo has a japan-centric philosophy for videogame hardware and software development. i already said this in a previous comment.

B. Nintendo doesn't care how well or poorly its products perform outside of Japan. This is what you said earlier and seem to want to support.

Yes, Nintendo believes their videogame systems and software have universal appeal. This view was validated by the universal appeal and universally positive sales of the Wii and DS hardware and software. But this has not been true for the 3ds and Wii U. There are any number of reasons that explain why these two products are not selling well. But Nintendo "not caring" about the North American market or any other is not one of them.

But when every measure Nintendo has taken to get its consoles on track has been aimed primarily at Japan, you've got to wonder how much they really do care about the rest of the world.

And it's fair enough to an extent: Nintendo is a Japanese company and that's the market they're familiar with. But to have all the other regions maintain a holding pattern while Iwata gets Japan sorted out is an absurd way of doing things. They need to be approaching this from multiple fronts, from different perspectives, rather than everything coming from Iwata and percolating down.

 

[watershed]

But when every measure Nintendo has taken to get its consoles on track has been aimed primarily at Japan, you've got to wonder how much they really do care about the rest of the world.

What measures have been aimed primarily at Japan? The 3ds price cut? The digital download incentive program for the Wii U deluxe model? Nintendo got the appeal of the 3ds and Wii U wrong. You could argue that this was due to their japan-centric philosophy. But outside of not securing western 3rd parties (which has more to do with market realities than Japanese-centric thinking), I can't think of many measures Nintendo took to help the Wii U or 3ds that have been aimed primarily at Japan.

And it's fair enough to an extent: Nintendo is a Japanese company and that's the market they're familiar with. But to have all the other regions maintain a holding pattern while Iwata gets Japan sorted out is an absurd way of doing things. They need to be approaching this from multiple fronts, from different perspectives, rather than everything coming from Iwata and percolating down.

Other regions have seen their share of free game incentives and other moves to bolster sales. For example, wouldn't you say that the release of the 2ds was a move by Nintendo aimed exclusively at foreign markets? It hasn't been released in Japan, it was timed with the release of Pokemon for maximum sales potential, it god rid of the 3d feature that might worry some potential buyers (parents), and was cheaper than the og 3ds/XL. But it hasn't sold well. It's not due to Nintendo not caring or not trying, maybe the market just isn't there anymore.

 

[QaaQer]

So your observation is that Nintendo or Iwata doesn't care about much outside of Japan? What kind of argument is that for a global company? You don't think he cared when the Wii and DS dominated all regions?

I already gave you my version. Nintendo has a japan-centric philosophy when it comes to designing videogame hardware and software. They seem to believe that their philosophy will be successful globally, as the Wii and DS were. This generation, they are wrong.

But I would never say that Nintendo ,a global company, "doesn't care" about markets outside of Japan. It's a hyperbolic comment that isn't useful to discussion in a thread about sales/markets.

panasonic sells fridges in India. Panasonic had Japanese people in Japan designing fridges for the global market. They were doing very poorly in India.

In 2007, a top executive moved to India and set up their Lifestyle and Research Center. Panasonic India then began designing the products for India and sales dramatically increased.

The moral of the story is that global corporations cannot be insular and/or xenophobic.

 

[Bony Manifesto]

What measures have been aimed primarily at Japan? The 3ds price cut? The digital download incentive program for the Wii U deluxe model? Nintendo got the appeal of the 3ds and Wii U wrong. You could argue that this was due to their japan-centric philosophy. But outside of not securing western 3rd parties (which has more to do with market realities than Japanese-centric thinking), I can't think of many measures Nintendo took to help the Wii U or 3ds that have been aimed primarily at Japan.

Other regions have seen their share of free game incentives and other moves to bolster sales. For example, wouldn't you say that the release of the 2ds was a move by Nintendo aimed exclusively at foreign markets? It hasn't been released in Japan, it was timed with the release of Pokemon for maximum sales potential, it god rid of the 3d feature that might worry some potential buyers (parents), and was cheaper than the og 3ds/XL. But it hasn't sold well. It's not due to Nintendo not caring or not trying, maybe the market just isn't there anymore.

I forgot about the 2DS. Fair enough, that was a whole new piece of hardware that was aimed at overseas markets. The other stuff you mention - the free game incentives and other promotions - are marketing, which is the one thing Nintendo seems to leave entirely to the discretion of the local division.

I'm thinking mostly content-wise. The new games they're funding are almost all made by the Japanese, for the Japanese. There's some cross-over appeal with the West, especially from Nintendo's in-house games, but they seem unwilling to fund anything that doesn't have the top of the staff roll filled with Japanese names.

 

[shinra-bansho]

1) It's not any part of the operating losses, which is what we normally look at (or should be looking at, anyway). The reason is that ordinary and net income include things like foreign exchange gains/losses, which obscure the health of the business. Operating income (usually)* tells us if they're making money selling video games.
2) I'm jcm. jvm is the smart guy from Gamasutra

* I say usually because Sony counted the sales of their buildings as operating income. I'm not an accountant, so I can't explain why they were allowed to do that. But in general operating income should tell us how much money a company is making in their actual line of business.

From memory, revaluations on long term assets are recorded as expenses if down or increases in shareholder equity if up. Only when they're actually sold though can you recognise gains on long term assets as income.

 

[jrDev]

As long as it doesn't get in the way of announcing a successor within the next year, I don't think it's a problem. It's just a stopgap measure.

I don't know if any revision above $99 is worthwhile though. Somebody mentioned the gameboy in the 90's, and its revival. That happened for a couple reasons - pokemon was enormous, and the system was only $49. That was $20 less than many console games of the same time. There was no serious investment in that system.

Jesus Christ! Game boy was $50? Wow has things changed...

 

[joedick]

The moral of the story is that global corporations cannot be insular and/or xenophobic.

Aren't they doing that with the iQue?

 

[udivision]

If you ignore the success they had with the fickle Wii blue ocean market, then the trend for Nintendo consoles has been a shrinking user base.

Well, it makes sense. The complaints about Nintendo, whether recent or longstanding, never seem to be sufficiently addressed. They haven't said a single word which should inspire confidence that their next console is going to buck the trend.

 

[Usobuko]

Amiibo is a very obvious attempt to get in on the cash Disney and Activision are raking in, but I have to wonder as well that without a dedicated game to use them with, that no one will bother. Or at least, it will make significantly less than they are expecting.

Amiibo is like Nintendo console, selling to the hardcore Nintendo fans mostly.

Spoiler

I'm not one but I'm buying them.

 

[Neff]

Regarding the favoured by some line of thinking that Nintendo's customer base is 'shrinking' (shrinking from what, I don't know), my take is that Mario Kart's excellent sales represent core, enthusiast and mainstream buyers relative to install base, hardware stock -and- still underexposed branding/info relating to Wii U. Not so much core appeal in itself, as evidenced by relatively underwhelming but still reasonable sales of Mario 3D World, Wind Waker HD and Pikmin 3. The non-hardcore Nintendo audience is definitely still there.

If QOL is a substantial part of Nintendo's future, then it's because it's much more difficult to squeeze money out of today's games industry for everyone involved than ten or even five years ago, particularly when consumer expectations are so staggeringly disproportionate to what's actually economically viable. To only dwell at Nintendo's struggles is overlooking or willfully ignoring the larger picture.

 

[numble]

Regarding the favoured by some line of thinking that Nintendo's customer base is 'shrinking' (shrinking from what, I don't know).

Software and hardware sales of the generation prior (or even the generation prior to that). This in a time when development costs are higher than those generations.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

I updated these charts

numbers from here

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/library/historical_data/xls/consolidated_sales_e1406.xls

[

Notice how high Wii PAL sales compared to other Nintendo consoles.

What is Nintendo going to do next gen. Their handheld is probably going to decline and is it possible for their home console to do even worse than the WiiU. This is at a time where dev costs are rising as well.

I can definitely see why Iwata chose to get out of the gaming market with QoL now.

 

[DaSorcerer7]

What is Nintendo going to do next gen. Their handheld is probably going to decline and is it possible for their home console to do even worse than the WiiU. This is at a time where dev costs are rising as well.

I can definitely see why Iwata chose to get out of the gaming market with QoL now.

When did he say that?

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

When did he say that?

Iirc it has something to do with health. I don't recall Iwata saying QoL will be in the video game sector.

Tbh I have little idea on what it is.

 

[mo60]

What is Nintendo going to do next gen. Their handheld is probably going to decline and is it possible for their home console to do even worse than the WiiU. This is at a time where dev costs are rising as well.

I can definitely see why Iwata chose to get out of the gaming market with QoL now.

QOL is a different revenue source that may not just focus on health. Nintendo will still be creating a handheld and a console next gen.

 

[Mpl90]

When did he say that?

Eh. We don't know what's going to happen 10 years from now, but right now the plan is for both gaming AND QOL business to be relevant parts of Nintendo. And QOL is not just health; it'll start with health, though.

 

[Zalman]

What is Nintendo going to do next gen. Their handheld is probably going to decline and is it possible for their home console to do even worse than the WiiU. This is at a time where dev costs are rising as well.

I can definitely see why Iwata chose to get out of the gaming market with QoL now.

They are not going to get out of the gaming market.

 

[zomgbbqftw]

Software and hardware sales of the generation prior (or even the generation prior to that). This in a time when development costs are higher than those generations.

Thanks for the charts. Really puts 3DS sales into context. For all the people going on about beast mode this and that, it is not going to get close to the GBA.

 

[protomouse]

I can definitely see why Iwata chose to get out of the gaming market with QoL now.

That's the first time I've seen anyone interpret it that way. Iwata was pretty clear about the fact that they're not exiting the video game market, nor discontinuing their hardware business.

We believe that we can capitalize the most on our strengths through a hardware-software integrated platform business, and therefore this type of dedicated video game platforms will remain our core focus. We will continue to value the spirit of originality described in our motto "The True Value of Entertainment Lies in Individuality," and will continue to provide products and services which pleasantly surprise people.

With a platform business that improves people's QOL in enjoyable ways, we will attempt to establish a new business area apart from our dedicated video game business. We have set "health" as the theme for our first step and we will try to use our strength as an entertainment company to create unique approaches that expand this business. Through our new endeavors with the QOL-improving platform, we strive to further promote our existing strategy of expanding our user base, create an environment in which more people are conscious about their health and in turn expand Nintendo's overall user base.

Source

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

I never said Nintendo as a whole were going out of the video game market. I was saying QoL is out of the video game market. Of course I still expect next gen Nintendo consoles.

Don't you find it weird why Nintendo have all of sudden decided to find a business in another sector?

When's the last time Nintendo pursued a product that wasn't in the video games industry?

 

[PdotMichael]

Software and hardware sales of the generation prior (or even the generation prior to that). This in a time when development costs are higher than those generations.

Looks like one of the biggest problem of Nintendo is that they lost Europe (+rest of the world). So even any semi good looking sales in the NPD threads are kind od misleading in the world wide scale.

Also the fact that the dying Japanese market became more important for Nintendo isn't a good sign.

 

[protomouse]

I never said Nintendo as a whole were going out of the video game market. I was saying QoL is out of the video game market.

Yes you did. You expressed yourself in a manner strongly implying the former rather than the latter.

Don't you find it weird why Nintendo have all of sudden decided to find a business in another sector?

Not really. They need another source of revenue. One would wonder why they haven't done this sooner, actually.

 

[geordiemp]

I never said Nintendo as a whole were going out of the video game market. I was saying QoL is out of the video game market. Of course I still expect next gen Nintendo consoles.

Don't you find it weird why Nintendo have all of sudden decided to find a business in another sector?

When's the last time Nintendo pursued a product that wasn't in the video games industry?

How does a company or people get away with talking about Quality of Life product but nobody knows what it is. It boggles my mind and sounds like a placeholder...

We hope to invent some gimmick soon, lets call it QOL to keep shareholders off our back and buy some time until we come up with something.


If there was a product, a real one, would the shareholders not have the right to be told !

 

[PdotMichael]

How does a company or people get away with talking about Quality of Life product but nobody knows what it is. It boggles my mind and sounds like a placeholder...

We hope to invent some gimmick soon, lets call it QOL to keep shareholders off our back and buy some time until we come up with something.


If there was a product, a real one, would the shareholders not have the right to be told !

The bigger problem is that Nintendo doesn't fight against companies like Sony or Microsoft in the QOL field but against Apple and Google.

 

[Pie and Beans]

How does a company or people get away with talking about Quality of Life product but nobody knows what it is. It boggles my mind and sounds like a placeholder...

We hope to invent some gimmick soon, lets call it QOL to keep shareholders off our back and buy some time until we come up with something.


If there was a product, a real one, would the shareholders not have the right to be told !

It was some amazing IRL trolling on Iwata's part back in January when it seemed like it was just a note he'd made on a napkin and just laughed when asked for more details by shareholders, and now that he's had severe illness he's had a sort of Get Out Of Jail Free Card again while it murkily continues to form behind the scenes.

All while smartphone producers and Xbox One hammer home their presence in the fitness/wellbeing market with concrete purchasable right now plans. Its a shambles is what it is.

Iwata's style of company direction is a crab that constantly scuttles sideways muttering "Maybe? Maaaayyyybeeee?" which is a direct contrast to Yamauchi the Swordfish's insane "Fuck you, pay me" frontal charge approach.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Yes you did. You expressed yourself in a manner strongly implying the former rather than the latter.



Not really. They need another source of revenue. One would wonder why they haven't done this sooner, actually.

Okay but why now. Why not during the Wii/DS era where they had the casuals in their hands?

Nintendo sees the decline in all its sectors. Handheld, home consoles and software. Coupled with rising dev costs, like you said, they need another revenue source. This quarter shows that their revenue was not enough to cover the costs of their business despite strong MK8 sales and so diversification was necessary.

Thats how I see it.

 

[Annoying Old Party Man]

It seems like Nintendo will keep being in a hard position, with no easy way out. The way I see it, they can either

a) try to create their own niche in the next 5-10 years, focus to a subscription model catered to their fans with a unique twist that might entice families (e.g. a Nintendo cartoon + video games service, just throwing ideas). The days they could compete with powerhouses such as Sony or Microsoft seem long gone if you take this generation into account.

b) try again to capture the lightning in a bottle that was the Wii/DS generation, with new hardware gimmicks.

To be honest I would go with the second, no matter how hard it seems now. They ought to try at least one more time to reinvent the industry and it will be their last effort since the old guard will probably have to step down by then - the next Nintendo system will be Miyamoto's, Takeda's (and the rest of the old guard) last.

-edit-
QoL is a wild card so we can't really comment on it right now. It's all speculation, they might have really something there, or it might prove to be vaporware.

 

[Annoying Old Party Man]

It was some amazing IRL trolling on Iwata's part back in January when it seemed like it was just a note he'd made on a napkin and just laughed when asked for more details by shareholders, and now that he's had severe illness he's had a sort of Get Out Of Jail Free Card again while it murkily continues to form behind the scenes.

All while smartphone producers and Xbox One hammer home their presence in the fitness/wellbeing market with concrete purchasable right now plans. Its a shambles is what it is.

Iwata's style of company direction is a crab that constantly scuttles sideways muttering "Maybe? Maaaayyyybeeee?" which is a direct contrast to Yamauchi the Swordfish's insane "Fuck you, pay me" frontal charge approach.

You could say it was announced to share holders to create some sort of momentum, and to give the press something to look forward to, akin to the "revolution" project announcement.

Iwata's withdrawal is circumstantial - I think we should give the QoL announcement some time - at least till the end of year before we criticize Iwata's management. They have supposedly have something big on their hands, we will see what it is when the card is on the table and then we can evaluate.

 

[Mr Swine]

The bigger problem is that Nintendo doesn't fight against companies like Sony or Microsoft in the QOL field but against Apple and Google.

And those iwatch or whatever the name is going to get released in 4-6 months so I feel that Nintendo is late again with their QoL product

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

My primary problem with Miyamoto as a manager is that he is too much of a perfectionist. He wants a game to be continuously tweaked until during development right up to the point of release, so that the game is extraordinarily polished when it comes out. However, that sort of behavior is becoming more and more costly as games are becoming more and more complex. It's simply not possible to expect a game to come out on time when requirements keep changing. That's why I want Miyamoto to have less influence on development, as his details oriented feedback no longer works for larger projects.

I'm perfectly fine with Miyamoto getting involved in smaller scale projects though.

EDIT: One thing that I forgot to mention: Miyamoto also guides development towards the type of games that he prefers. This is not necessarily a big problem in itself, but that in conjunction with the previous issue means that people might be spending weeks creating something that might not actually appeal to a large audience.

I actually think you've got it backwards. The main problem is not his demand for a high level of polish. That is a secondary issue exacerbated by the fact that his managerial decisions are too heavily influenced by his personal taste. The bolded is what supposedly causes him to upend tea tables on projects deep in development, setting them back a year or more. At the end of the day we don't know how these projects would have turned out without his intervention, but given the generally high levels of talent and craftsmanship at Nintendo, I suspect they wouldn't necessarily have been significantly less popular.

I really feel like every quarter it is accounting 101 for the same people. I almost suspect it is intentional!

Nintendo has structural issues in the business.

It's not "marketing" (advertising). The markets for their core products are significantly shrinking. They know that, hence the diversification away from being a monoline business into health products. I don't know why the truth is so painful here. Nintendo already gets it. #iwatawasrightjustnotbecauseofwhyyouthink

I think you pretty much answered your own question. Despite their current success, even MS and Sony admit that they too are in danger of losing a significant portion of their userbase, as there are going to be considerably less Nintendo gamers "graduating" to more high-end platforms, among other reasons.
Obviously it's not going to be easy for some gamers on a gaming forum to admit their favorite hobby is dramatically shrinking in popularity, or at least being transformed into something that appeals to them much less.

 

[Mpl90]

And those iwatch or whatever the name is going to get released in 4-6 months so I feel that Nintendo is late again with their QoL product

Well, since the start, they've defined that their new product is a non-wearable, so they won't compete directly with Apple and Google, fortunately. What's a non-wearable? It's an absolute mistery, though.

 

[geordiemp]

And those iwatch or whatever the name is going to get released in 4-6 months so I feel that Nintendo is late again with their QoL product

Even reading about Iwatch....

Additionally, the wearable tech market is exploding. Companies including Samsung, Pebble, LG, Wellograph, Razer, Sony, ZTE and more have released or unveiled wrist-worn smart-devices, and 2014's Consumer Electronic Show in January was dominated by wearable devices.

The problem I have is that the excitement is all from the suppliers - I have never come across anybody wanting a smart watch / bracelet / necklace etc

Surely everything gets packed into the phone

To me the whole concept sounds complete b...ks

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

Well, since the start, they've defined that their new product is a non-wearable, so they won't compete directly with Apple and Google, fortunately. What's a non-wearable? It's an absolute mistery, though.

2015: Nintendo announce that ,in accordance with Hiroshi Yamauchi's last wish before stepping down as president of the company, they constructed and have been maintaining for the past decade a secret research facility intended to utilize recent advances in genetic engineering and biotechnology in order to create new enhanced species of fauna based on those depicted in their own products. Iwata announces that starting in 2016 these animals will gradually be released to the wild, all over the world. Finding and capturing rare specimen will become a new, internationally recognised form of physical sport. As a result, global levels of fitness and athleticism will experience an unprecedented growth.

 

[MisterGrey3000]

Okay but why now. Why not during the Wii/DS era where they had the casuals in their hands?

They probably never thought about it seeing as the Wii/DS were insanely profitable at that point in time (those dumb "It prints money!" gifs weren't lying); Plus smart phones/tablets weren't stealing their bread & butter costumers with similar software, cheaper prices, and pure technological convenience.
Now that their market has shrunk because of their boneheaded mistakes they've probably realized that they can't just stick to one industry unless they plan on ending up like Atari, SEGA, or any other irrelevant gaming-centric company that has completely collapsed in the console arena.

 

[SmokyDave]

Software and hardware sales of the generation prior (or even the generation prior to that). This in a time when development costs are higher than those generations.

Man, those charts really do tell a tale, especially the 'powerhouse' 3DS decline.

 

[airmangataosenai]

Man, those charts really do tell a tale, especially the 'powerhouse' 3DS decline.

Yep. The only truly successful Nintendo platform it is certain to surpass anymore is the SNES.

 

[Pie and Beans]

The downward slope that ignores the "1 Time Only Super Boost"/BLUE OCEAN platform is pretty hard to argue with but many try. I mean, that shit just seems locked in.

 

[SmokyDave]

Yep. The only truly successful Nintendo platform it is certain to surpass anymore is the SNES.

At a time when more people than ever are gaming, many of whom probably cut their teeth on a Wii. Madness.

The downward slope that ignores the "1 Time Only Super Boost"/BLUE OCEAN platform is pretty hard to argue with but many try. I mean, that shit just seems locked in.

Yup, it's a clear trend. I kinda feel like Nintendo got left behind with SEGA once Sony showed up to the party, only they had enough cash to keep themselves helplessly plugging away.

Still, who knows, they may yet find another blue ocean.

 

[michaelius]

Looks like one of the biggest problem of Nintendo is that they lost Europe (+rest of the world). So even any semi good looking sales in the NPD threads are kind od misleading in the world wide scale.

Also the fact that the dying Japanese market became more important for Nintendo isn't a good sign.

They didn't lose it. Outside of Wii generation they never had it.
Europe didn't have video game market crash as badly as America and computers were lot more popular so there's much less nostalgia to them in Europe.

 

[nephilimdj]

NoA doesn't make games anymore, true. But Nintendo lost western 3rd party support for a whole host of reasons, just as they are in this current situation for a whole host of reasons. As I said, there was a time when Nintendo consoles were where money was made. But this is a 3 console market now, not to mention a possibly contracting global market.

I don't see a direct connection between the state of NoA today and the state of Nintendo's profits today.

Retro do weekly conferences with Japan, its far gone from 90s where Ken lobb would visit rare and actually help development.

As the other guy said who your replying to, NOA have no power anymore.