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[mAcOdIn]

I don't have a 3DS, mostly because there doesn't seem to be many games for met (yet) on the system. But...

The fuck? Tomodachi and Monster Hunter are huge, huge, huge games in Japan. They just announced true sequels to both of them. And would investors only be happy if Nintendo announced that they were making iOS games?

Obviously Nintendo to combat the iOS market straight on - or at least mention a plan in doing so. However, releasing games on the iOS market would also severely weaken their line-up on the 3DS.

MH may be huge in Japan but it's not the casual market that ate up the DS, just grabbing everyone who plays MH is still a reduction in market share compared to the original DS.

Factually speaking, if I were an investor I would sell Nintendo stock right now or even prior because it will never again be that high. It's that simple, it is the end of an era and Nintendo will fail to meet prior numbers and they will not grow. It would be akin to me throwing money away to hold Nintendo stock let alone buy it. That doesn't mean Nintendo is doomed just that it's not going to go up like it did with the Wii and DS. That's what investors are concerned about.

What's annoying is that listening to the investors would destroy the company. Everyone should ignore them, let them sell and go on their way until Nintendo reaches the stock price they should be at and things will be a lot more rosy.

 

[SouthernDragon]

While Nintendo definitely has trouble spots, I wouldn't look to analysts and investors as to why. They are pretty ignorant of the market and what drives growth and sales there. Most investors, including institutional ones, simply follow trends.

In short, they are fucking dumb.

 

[SmokyDave]

Well a bubble is only obvious after the fact. Those of us claiming one will always be seen to have an agenda etc.

Actually I think one of the approaches Nintendo can make is to make the digital side of their business open platform. Imagine their back catlog freely available on their 3DS, WiiU and on app stores under a unified Nintendo store.

I'd push for that. And the Nintendo store itself could be used as leverage for a future product.

I agree with the general analysis nintendo's current problem is they are not open enough to online and digital transactions, but not neccessarily on-line gaming. That's just a nerd fetish.

It's not whether it's a bubble or not that I was tempted to argue, it's what will be left when the current bubble bursts. I think people want to use their smartphones and no amount of shovelware is going to stop that. When the current 'boom' fades, I think there will still be a viable market there somewhere.

Yeah, a digital 'Nintendo Store' could definitely do some damage. Especially if they created a gamertag/account that could be used on multiple devices and sold their back catalogue at bargain basement prices. A few sales here 'n' there wouldn't hurt either.

 

[Old Gimlet Eyes]

To be clear, this is where I stand. I don't think Nintendo are 'doomed' necessarily but I do think they're overlooking some easy money at a time when their main interests (3DS & Wii-U) are looking a little 'shaky'. Just port the back catalogue and some spin-off titles, price them at £2.99 each and laugh all the way to the bank. Hell, do simultaneous releases across 3DSWare and the app store. Sell 'lite' versions on the app store to promote the 'full' title on 3DS. Investors are happy, iOS gamers are happy and if you're lucky, 3DS owners get more people to play with and more games due to the larger install based hooked in on small iOS apps.


jman2050, Deku & Cipherr, thanks for your responses to my previous post. I dig what you're saying, although I'm not sure how much I agree.

Exactly what I am thinking. It just seems like such a no-brainer to do that and collect all that easy money. I don't see how allowing more of their past entries to be more widely available to purchase, hurting the Nintendo consoles/handhelds at all. People will still buy the new systems to play the new games that are only available there. But with the 100's of millions of smartphone users across the world, why not give them the option to download Super Mario Bros. or Super Metroid for $2.99?

Not to mention releasing some smartphone based spin offs of their franchises as well. Make a an angry birds ripoff with donkey kong throwing barrels at Peach's castles or something.

 

[wsippel]

5% stock decrease may have had nothing to do with the 3DS conference yesterday, some people reading into things and wanting Nintendo to fail to capitulate

It certainly had to do with the conference. But it wasn't about what was announced, it was about the conference itself actually happening. The drop happened early in the morning and stopped the moment the conference started.

 

[Jocchan]

Inflate the iPhone's price to $40 or lower Mario Karts to $1 each sale and then compare them.

Just imagine if iOS apps were priced one billion billion dollers each. We could build a golden elevator to Jupiter with all that money.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

I agree with the general analysis nintendo's current problem is they are not open enough to online and digital transactions, but not neccessarily on-line gaming. That's just a nerd fetish.

LOL. And WoW?

 

[DUFFMCWALIN]

The behavior of shareholders is not surprising, but their excess of faith in the iOS gaming future has no solid basis and thus it is not very logic. It's really almost entirely built up on Apple reputation and Angry Birds success till now.

That will crash. Apple is having such a strong run these last few years with no let down in sight (although I think its coming sooner rather than later) is why shareholders want everyone to follow Apple.

 

[Teknoman]

I'll probably get a Wii U. Of course Nintendo's games are great on Wii. I just wish it was more competent hardware. Also, 3DS is kind of what I was talking about when I said "terrible hardware"

Form factor or power wise? If its just power, then wait till you see Mario 3D land in action in person. Or even Star Fox 3D for that matter (not system pushing, but it doesnt look like a slouch either).

 

[Gilgamesh]

Why is everyone comparing revenue? Nintendo's games are priced at $35-50. It's not surprising their revenue is higher than companies producing $1-3 iOS games. You need to compare their profit. It doesn't take an analyst to know that Skyward Sword costs a hell of a lot more to develop than Angry Birds.

 

[Medalion]

Not sure if old or thread worthy, so I'm gonna dump it here...


http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/37189/Nintendo_Shares_Drop_5_Following_PreTGS_Announcements.php

I'm speechless. I thought Nintendo delivered on every level. You just can't win with these people, can you?

Perhaps the stock drop had nothing to do with the 3DS conference directly and some other factors came into play in general, some people can take any negative happenstance and spin it as doom and gloom against a company

 

[victreeb3l]

nintendo should make the wiiu with an actual tablet and have their version of an app store with non gaming apps. the wii channels were a good start but make it available to other developers as well.

that will shut up the investors.

 

[Jin34]

MH may be huge in Japan but it's not the casual market that ate up the DS, just grabbing everyone who plays MH is still a reduction in market share compared to the original DS.

Factually speaking, if I were an investor I would sell Nintendo stock right now or even prior because it will never again be that high. It's that simple, it is the end of an era and Nintendo will fail to meet prior numbers and they will not grow. It would be akin to me throwing money away to hold Nintendo stock let alone buy it. That doesn't mean Nintendo is doomed just that it's not going to go up like it did with the Wii and DS. That's what investors are concerned about.

What's annoying is that listening to the investors would destroy the company. Everyone should ignore them, let them sell and go on their way until Nintendo reaches the stock price they should be at and things will be a lot more rosy.

Pretty much, these people are the investors that jumped in after the DS/Wii killer combo and had never payed attention to the company before.

 

[Deku]

LOL. And WoW?

Well that's a fact. I'm also a nerd and care about on-line very much for their properties.

 

[Cipherr]

It's not whether it's a bubble or not that I was tempted to argue, it's what will be left when the current bubble bursts. I think people want to use their smartphones and no amount of shovelware is going to stop that. When the current 'boom' fades, I think there will still be a viable market there somewhere.

Yep, I think its possible that this is a bubble, but Im not even sure of that really. Its hard to say, but I think its impossible that smartphone gaming dies. Impossible, the market is growing to fast, and like you said, we will all have them in our pockets anyway. I can leave home without my 3DS.

But Im not leaving home without my Phone/GPS Navigator/Day Planner/Music&Media Player/Digital&Video Camera/Watch/Daily Newspaper in my pocket. And most people wont. The smartphone will always demand a part of the gaming pie because of that, and theres no doubt that share will grow as smartphones keep expanding.

Will have to wait and see how it shakes out.

Why is everyone comparing revenue? Nintendo's games are priced at $35-50. It's not surprising their revenue is higher than companies producing $1-3 iOS games. You need to compare their profit.

We could do that if it was easier to get the numbers, but even then, its not going to fold in a company like Rovios favor at all. So rather than folks making up what they think the profit margin on each title is, we stick with numbers backed by actual releases. Once it goes into speculative numbers the entire discussion kinda breaks down.

 

[Krauser Kat]

That will crash. Apple is having such a strong run these last few years with no let down in sight (although I think its coming sooner rather than later) is why shareholders want everyone to follow Apple.

Apples hold on the market will fall but the mobile phone gaming will only get stronger. It can easily outrun the size of the mobile gaming market in the next 5-10 years. we should also be looking at SOFTWARE as whole sales for mobile phones against. Vita can make money selling apps and software that are not games as well.

 

[Angry Fork]

So they can make shit-tons off of speculative investors. The capital influx allows them to fund more riskier R&D projects (like the 3DS).

Unfortunately, that also means they are subject to fluctuations in speculation (such as what is happening right now).

But if they make great products that sell a lot already then why do they need anyone else? Valve is private they do whatever they want, make tons of money and keep doing new things. It seems like Nintendo would benefit greatly from not having to appeal to these kinds of people.

 

[Mudkips]

Reading about dog spunk in the OT.

I've seen those numbers before but they cover the entire app store (apps as well as games). Pitifully low. If those numbers are taken at face value, most Devs/Pubs on the app store are publishing games as some sort of charity initiative. That's very nice of them.

If the situation is as dire as some paint it, I'm staggered that there aren't more articles by disgruntled devs hammering the app store. I'm even more staggered that companies are still releasing games on the app store, let alone all the free content updates.

I'm sure there is something missing here. Ad revenue? In-app purchases? Or is it just that profit (not revenue) projections on the dedicated units are even lower?

There are PLENTY of articles where developers whine and cry about the various digital stores.

The gist of it is:

iOS - Unless you're Angry Birds you won't make money by trying, so you should throw as much shit on the wall and see what sticks. Hopefully your fart app gets a good amount of sales before Apple takes it down.

Android - Everyone pirates shit so you have to make it free and fill it with endless ads.

Amazon - They don't give you shit for money and if you want to be featured / the deal of the day they give you even less.

What you're missing is the barrier to entry. And jackhole can make a mobile game, just like flash games in the 90s. They don't need a dev kit, they don't need to be blessed by Iwata before being allowed to put out a game on their platform, and they don't even need experienced development staff.

The big fuss over all of it is hype-driven. People think the mobile games market will eclipse the dedicated games market, and everyone is trying to get in on it early. All the action is people clamoring to get their name noticed. But, as the actual numbers show, the mobile market is a tiny fraction of the dedicated market in terms of overall revenue and revenue to publishers.

I would be interested to see the profits of some of these mobile developers. Obviously Rovio and Zynga are printing money, but everyone else isn't. They do have the benefit of astronomically lower development costs, though. But I suspect that most are losing money or barely breaking even, and this will only get worse as the big players (Rovio, Zynga, and inevitably Gamestop as well as Google, Amazon, and Apple themselves) pump out higher quality games and people start seeing the shovelware titles for what they are.

 

[Evlar]

The iOS and Android App Stores are swamped by millions of marginally attached gaming consumers. This is demonstrated by the extreme price sensitivity observed in these marketplaces to the point that the price signal nearly drowns out all other data; genres, developer's reputation, media reviews, all appear to fade from consumer's consideration against the overwhelming emphasis on price; and the best price of all being, obviously, free. There is a very small percentage of products that escape this generalization, with Angry Birds' ubiquitous exposure perpetuating their success the leading example (and Rovio still can't escape the dollar trap).

The options for profitability are to either find a way to make enough money in the aggregate to eek out a profit by selling a gazillion tiny games* (Apple is making money in exactly this way... I don't know if any other publisher has captured enough marketshare to make this strategy work for them, or if they even could); on the other hand, find a way to transform some portion of the customer base from marginally attached consumers feasting on the dollar buffet to enthusiasts who will pay a premium to have their specialized demands met (for particular genres, developers, franchises, and so forth).

I think the second option will win out- an enthusiast market will (re)emerge, and the "dollar buffet" will gradually shrink (but not vanish!) as investors lose interest or their shirts and stop the flow of speculative funds, thus drying up a big portion of the development pool. The price of worthwhile games will rise to the point that the regular console business can begin to compete on price again, assuming they survive that long.

I base this amateur analysis on a simple thesis: There's nothing new here, except the market has moved into people's pockets. Similar marketplaces have existed on PC for a very long time. Everybody has a handful of free Windows games; tens of millions of people play Windows Solitaire daily, yet PC gaming (and console gaming) survive and thrive because a small portion of the market is willing to pay a high premium for video game entertainment tailored to their tastes. That very small portion of the market is us. It's the people NeoGAF calls "gamers". The existence of the marginally attached consumer hasn't killed gaming before and it won't now. It's a matter of finding the consumers willing to pay a premium to have their specific tastes in content catered to, and finding developers and publishers willing and able to capitalize on that market. Investor and media fascination with the "dollar buffet" may certainly do some damage in the meantime, though.

* I would like to call this the WarioWare model of game publishing.

 

[Coxy]

Perhaps the stock drop had nothing to do with the 3DS conference directly and some other factors came into play in general, some people can take any negative happenstance and spin it as doom and gloom against a company

We already went through this after the DQX conference

 

[Fantasy Final]

lol the troll is so great. Nice one Reuters.

 

[DUFFMCWALIN]

Apples hold on the market will fall but the mobile phone gaming will only get stronger. It can easily outrun the size of the mobile gaming market in the next 5-10 years. we should also be looking at SOFTWARE as whole sales for mobile phones against. Vita can make money selling apps and software that are not games as well.

Yup I think that mobile gaming will get stronger on platforms like Apple and Android. I agree with you on the Vita. If they can have a marketplace like Apples I think that would do very well for them.

 

[Momo]

Nintendo to buy Nokia and become smartphone makers by 2013

 

[vareon]

I posted this in the other thread, but just for good measure (and to back you up here!), I'm posting it here too.

I have a lot of questions with this comparison. Mario Kart DS is one of the best selling game on DS, of course it will give a shitload of revenue. What about other modest selling title that doesn't break 100k? What about these Ubisoft Petz games that we (that is, gaffers) never bought but they keep on coming anyway?

I'd really love to read a better analysis on this.

 

[Deku]

I'm not suggesting smartphone gaming dies. The bubble point was brought up in response to questions why a lot of people keep piling in, and so many games continued to be released even when revenues of the biggest devs are small, and one estimate of average revenues for a game app is like $5,000 made by Trip Hawkins at E3.

There was an internet bubble it didn't mean the internet disappeared after the bubble burst, it just means things settled down and brick and mortar stores continue to co-exist with online stores. there's overexhuberance factor for sure.

 

[dinosaur_hunter2]

Just wait for the holidays, Reuters. You just wait.

 

[_Xenon_]

What investors care about is market expending not "company A owned company B in conference X". Nintendo going back to the core market is indeed good news for people posting on gaming board daily but it also means they are abandoning the market they have expended for the past years: casual games, because they know they can't compete with mobile companies.

 

[entremet]

Good article. Why is this surprising? Remove any fondness you have for the company, but seeing the trends, mobile gaming to going to cell phones. It's not hard to see the advantages, especially for the casual crowd. Furthermore, Nintendo is also so behind in the DD area, it's embarrassing. You need a compelling app store.

 

[FoneBone]

The iOS and Android App Stores are swamped by millions of marginally attached gaming consumers. This is demonstrated by the extreme price sensitivity observed in these marketplaces to the point that the price signal nearly drowns out all other data; genres, developer's reputation, media reviews, all appear to fade from consumer's consideration against the overwhelming emphasis on price; and the best price of all being, obviously, free. There is a very small percentage of products that escape this generalization, with Angry Birds' ubiquitous exposure perpetuating their success the leading example (and Rovio still can't escape the dollar trap).

The options for profitability are to either find a way to make enough money in the aggregate to eek out a profit by selling a gazillion tiny games* (Apple is making money in exactly this way... I don't know if any other publisher has captured enough marketshare to make this strategy work for them, or if they even could); on the other hand, find a way to transform some portion of the customer base from marginally attached consumers feasting on the dollar buffet to enthusiasts who will pay a premium to have their specialized demands met (for particular genres, developers, franchises, and so forth).

I think the second option will win out- an enthusiast market will (re)emerge, and the "dollar buffet" will gradually shrink (but not vanish!) as investors lose interest or their shirts and stop the flow of speculative funds, thus drying up a big portion of the development pool. The price of worthwhile games will rise to the point that the regular console business can begin to compete on price again, assuming they survive that long.

I base this amateur analysis on a simple thesis: There's nothing new here, except the market has moved into people's pockets. Similar marketplaces have existed on PC for a very long time. Everybody has a handful of free Windows games; tens of millions of people play Windows Solitaire daily, yet PC gaming (and console gaming) survive and thrive because a small portion of the market is willing to pay a high premium for video game entertainment tailored to their tastes. That very small portion of the market is us. It's the people NeoGAF calls "gamers". The existence of the marginally attached consumer hasn't killed gaming before and it won't now. Investor and media fascination with that market may certainly do some damage in the meantime, though.

* I would like to call this the WarioWare model of game publishing.

Agree 100%. Smartphone gaming isn't going to go anywhere, but the race-to-the-bottom market that currently exists just isn't sustainable.

 

[demigod]

Its about to go up 15% following MH4's announcement.

 

[MaddenNFL64]

Pretty much, these people are the investors that jumped in after the DS/Wii killer combo and had never payed attention to the company before.

Not a stock guy, but I remember people throwing around these huge fucking market cap numbers for Nintendo a few years ago. Like the same size as Sony numbers. A 5% drop means people are losing millions if they stay on. It's smart to bail now.

Nintendo's will be a much smaller company to investor eyes soon enough, and that'll be ok I think.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

Why is everyone comparing revenue? Nintendo's games are priced at $35-50. It's not surprising their revenue is higher than companies producing $1-3 iOS games. You need to compare their profit. It doesn't take an analyst to know that Skyward Sword costs a hell of a lot more to develop than Angry Birds.

Don't make me start. Rovio Entertainment revenue in the last 6 months of 2010 was 5 millions $. Profits were 3 millions.
Nintendo revenue was 13 billions $ and income was 1 billion $ (2011).

It is true that Rovio' actual proportion between revenue and income is very large, but that's because it is privately held and it is very small. If they want to scale up and become larger, their profits will sink fast, like any other company of the planet.

Indeed this kind of business can make the people behind the small company quite rich, but if they have to please investors and go public it's going to be very hard for them. And this makes Nintendo's investors behavior even less understandable.

 

[Anticitizen One]

Nintendo reaped what they sowed. They were assholes for showing off Xenoblade and the last story and then decided to not bring it to the U.S. despite a huge campaign by fans. They also had several shitty e3's in a row where they completely abandoned gamers and focused on the casual audience instead. On top of that they release the 3DS with like no games thinking it will sell on the nintendo name alone. They deserve their misfortunes IMO

 

[elohel]

Would Apples stock would jump with a Monster Hunter 4 announcement.

lol

WHAT?!

 

[M3d10n]

Yeah, a digital 'Nintendo Store' could definitely do some damage. Especially if they created a gamertag/account that could be used on multiple devices and sold their back catalogue at bargain basement prices. A few sales here 'n' there wouldn't hurt either.

Now this is much more logical than releasing their games on AppStore (they don't get to pay anyone 30% of their revenue) and is basically what Sony is trying to do with PS Suite, the difference being that Nintendo themselves have enough content of their own to feed the store while PS Suite relies on 3rd parties.

However, it's too soon for this. The Android app market is still incredibly chaotic, hardware is still heavily in flux and app sales are a far cry from compared to iOS. Right now it would hurt more than help, but I can see this happening in 3-5 years.

 

[Krauser Kat]

Its about to go up 15% following MH4's announcement.

Stock is going to go up by pandering to a niche audience? When making real profits come from selling games to the entire market.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

The biggest change and threat that the emergence of mobile gaming has brought to the handheld market is pricing.

While not everyone that games on an iphone is going to game on a handheld, there are people that decide to go with their phone since it's a device they already have in their pockets and carry with them anyways.

This has led to a complete paradigm shift in regards to the price of portable games. While I personally WANT more expensive titles which reflects their high production values there are scores of people that are more than content with gameloft knockoffs...

Many gamers would prefer to spend 99c on a game they'll play for a week then spend another 2 bucks next week and so on rather than 40 bucks for a game they may or may not enjoy.

Nintendo needs to go full out with digital distribution and improve their "app" store. There's no reason why Plants vs Zombies should cost 99c on the iphone and $6.99 on Nintendo's store....none....at all. They need to embrace these developers and make it JUST as easy for those 99c games to be ported/developed on the 3DS and priced competitively with mobile offerings.

That isn't to say the next major mario title should sell for 99c. But Nintendo needs to realize that ONLY triple A titles should be sold for 40 dollars. Mario, Zelda, Monster Hunter, MGS..etc...games with extreme production values and polish. There's no reason pilotwings resort should have retailed for 40 bucks at launch.

THAT is what is wrong with Nintendo this generation. To turn it around they need to:
1.Embrace digital distribution and revamp their online store. Easy to buy, easy to re-download. Intuitive UI to browse.

2.Lower pricing on lower tier games. Digital games need to be sold much cheaper than it is now with SALES to keep gamers buying in bulk.

3. More quality games, more often. Stop expecting your base to wait 8 months for a good game.

 

[wsippel]

Stock is going to go up by pandering to a niche audience? When making real profits come from selling games to the entire market.

MH is hardly niche in Japan. And if you're big in Japan, you get more development support from pretty much all the devs that actually matter in the handheld space.

 

[AbsoluteZero]

My biggest problem with iPhone gaming outside of touch screen buttons is how cluttered the App store is.

If your game isn't featured or in the top 25, few people are going to find or even know about it.

 

[apana]

The title is accurate. Feel free to serve me 'crow' down the line, if you can.

I'll do it early just in case I forget in the future:

 

[BurntPork]

Nintendo reaped what they sowed. They were assholes for showing off Xenoblade and the last story and then decided to not bring it to the U.S. despite a huge campaign by fans.

not sure if 2011...

They also had several shitty e3's in a row where they completely abandoned gamers and focused on the casual audience instead. On top of that they release the 3DS with like no games thinking it will sell on the nintendo name alone. They deserve their misfortunes IMO

... or 2008

 

[demigod]

Stock is going to go up by pandering to a niche audience? When making real profits come from selling games to the entire market.

Niche audience, lol.

 

[Jokeropia]

When I think about how uninformed mainstream press coverage of the videogame market generally is, it makes me wonder what other areas they're this uninformed about that I'm not realizing. I mean, if videogames hadn't been an hobby of mine I might not have caught the nonsense in this article.

I mean; isn't like the biggest game on 3DS a port of a N64 title? OOT? How old is that again?

Since you're talking about FFT iPad you are including games that are not yet released, and I can think of a few upcoming 3DS games that are a bit bigger than OOT.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

The iOS and Android App Stores are swamped by millions of marginally attached gaming consumers. This is demonstrated by the extreme price sensitivity observed in these marketplaces to the point that the price signal nearly drowns out all other data; genres, developer's reputation, media reviews, all appear to fade from consumer's consideration against the overwhelming emphasis on price; and the best price of all being, obviously, free. There is a very small percentage of products that escape this generalization, with Angry Birds' ubiquitous exposure perpetuating their success the leading example (and Rovio still can't escape the dollar trap).

The options for profitability are to either find a way to make enough money in the aggregate to eek out a profit by selling a gazillion tiny games* (Apple is making money in exactly this way... I don't know if any other publisher has captured enough marketshare to make this strategy work for them, or if they even could); on the other hand, find a way to transform some portion of the customer base from marginally attached consumers feasting on the dollar buffet to enthusiasts who will pay a premium to have their specialized demands met (for particular genres, developers, franchises, and so forth).

I think the second option will win out- an enthusiast market will (re)emerge, and the "dollar buffet" will gradually shrink (but not vanish!) as investors lose interest or their shirts and stop the flow of speculative funds, thus drying up a big portion of the development pool. The price of worthwhile games will rise to the point that the regular console business can begin to compete on price again, assuming they survive that long.

I base this amateur analysis on a simple thesis: There's nothing new here, except the market has moved into people's pockets. Similar marketplaces have existed on PC for a very long time. Everybody has a handful of free Windows games; tens of millions of people play Windows Solitaire daily, yet PC gaming (and console gaming) survive and thrive because a small portion of the market is willing to pay a high premium for video game entertainment tailored to their tastes. That very small portion of the market is us. It's the people NeoGAF calls "gamers". The existence of the marginally attached consumer hasn't killed gaming before and it won't now. It's a matter of finding the consumers willing to pay a premium to have their specific tastes in content catered to, and finding developers and publishers willing and able to capitalize on that market. Investor and media fascination with the "dollar buffet" may certainly do some damage in the meantime, though.

* I would like to call this the WarioWare model of game publishing.

Nice reading. I laughed at the "Warioware model of game publishing"

 

[mAcOdIn]

Yeah, Nintendo getting revalued at a more realistic level would be for the best I think.

But that said, I think where Nintendo really dropped the ball in the DS/DSi era was by not just copying Apple with its appstore. DSiware should have a free entry just like the appstore and let Nintendo take a 30% cut just like Apple, there already was shitty 2 dollar apps anyways so why not open it up? It's essentially free money for Nintendo. Provide no support and just let the shit sell, so what if only each title makes a thousand bucks or whatever, you're taking 30% of every title sold all together not the whole cut of just the biggest title alone.

And of course they need to be possibly played on the Wii, well, those that don't require certain DS features like the second screen. Of course, they'd need to actually make their network non shitty for that part to work.

That alone would be free money for Nintendo.

I still think ultimately Nintendo is in trouble as a lot of people that are mobile gamers are not mobile gamers because they want to be or they like those experiences the best but because it's the only time they can play and for them I do think Nintendo will ultimately lose part of their "core" handheld market over to smartphones.

 

[PopcornMegaphone]

DS = DVD
3DS = blu-ray

The 3DS will be a viable platform, but the market is clearly shifting. It's not surprising Nintendo's stock is getting hammered.

 

[krypt0nian]

My biggest problem with iPhone gaming outside of touch screen buttons is how cluttered the App store is.

If your game isn't featured or in the top 25, few people are going to find or even know about it.

Go to the iOS gaming thread here on GAF. Endless amazing games by word of mouth is far better than the best market UI.

It's good to have GAF.

 

[Duxxy3]

If the drop was for nintendo's disinterest in non-japanese markets i'd probably side with the investors, but it's not. It dropped because they are disappointed that nintendo isn't a third party developer for apple.


It's not going to happen. If investors really want that to happen they should just jump ship now. Yamauchi will burn that bitch to the ground before they get to that point.

 

[dacuk]

PLEASE PUT MARIO ON THE IPHONE PLEASEEEEE

No, keep your button-less gadget from my Mario.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

That said, I think they need to answer a fundamental question in the next generation. Either stick to dedicated gaming handhelds or abandon it. If they choose the former, they need a rethink. A generic portable box that is slightly larger than your standard smartphone isn't going to be enough. Maybe they can move to new devices with a new form factor - credit card sized devices, or something that sidesteps smartphones entirely, but they'll have to face those design decisions now.

I've said it before, but I think converging their handheld and home console systems into one unified "platform" is the way forward for Nintendo. Basically, they should've done something like take the Wii U controller and stick a 3DS chipset/battery/memory in it. Home consoles essentially become "hubs", handhelds become the "controllers". Take your game with you at lower fidelity, or play it more visually improved at home. You could still essentially have two discrete platforms with differing games/experiences really (mobile SD or home HD), but the two being sunk into one branded "platform" would strengthen both sides. A little like the digital/retail submarkets we have on consoles today.