Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo Announces Net Loss, New Prices
Daetrin writes "As reported by CNN/Reuters, Nintendo announced that they expect a net loss for the first half of the financial year, from April through September. Nintendo claims this is mainly due to exchange rates, as the yen has appreciated against foreign currencies during that period. This is reported as the first loss for Nintendo since its establishment. The projection for the full fiscal year was reduced to a [still significant] net profit of about $542 million U.S. Nintendo also announced further price cuts in other territories to follow the cut to $99 in the U.S.: 'Beginning on October 10, the console will have a suggested retail price of 79 pounds (approximately $131.8 U.S.) in Britain, and 99 euros (approximately $115.4 U.S.) in continental Europe. The new price of the GameCube in Japan is now 14,000 yen (approximately $126.5 U.S.)'"
Its too bad that stories like this keep getting posted about Nintendo. In this case the losses come from the depreciation of the yen against the dollar, but I'm sure that some people will just glance at the story and assume that Nintendo is hurting financially. I hope that this bad press doesn't discourage anyone from getting a gamecube right now, its a great machine at a great price :)
In linux libertas
I think it's fairly important not to forget that Nintendo is the only company in the console manufacturing business whose only business is consoles (including handhelds). Nintendo doesn't have a line of electronic devices or movies or operating system to fall back on. We'll never really hear if the Xbox or PS2 divisions of Sony and MS are losing money because those are largely internal divisions, whereas if Nintendo is losing money it's solely because of poor console/software sales.
It *is* notable that it's the first time Nintendo has posted a loss, but I think that this may be slightly representative of the gaming market at large. We're on the downhill from here to 2005 in the sense that the market is no longer hard-core first adopters but largely families or potential multiple console owners.
The good news is that Nintendo will probably just keep on being Nintendo. That means we'll continue to see one or two extremely high quality Gamecube games until and perhaps even into the next console lifespan. The bad news is that, well, Nintendo will just keep on being Nintendo. That means that if there's one of the three companies feeling a bit like a third wheel, it's Nintendo. What with the PSP on the horizon that may potentially do to the portable market what the PSX did to home console market,
I think Nintendo's in a rough spot here. They're stubborn bastards though, and I don't think they'll go down without a fight, nintendo-style. The problem is that while Nintendo-style is good for those of us here and the serious gaming community, I don't think it's a viable strategy for the post-PSX/GTA market (regretably).
Unbelivable. A Nintendo fan has just changed "Nintendo lost out in the market, is getting financially hammered, and is having to drop prices on its products to get them to sell" to "Nintendo is about to kick ass". Amazing. Even Linux doesn't get this degree of mindless dumb faith.
May we never see th