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Nintendo Quarterly Profits Down 80%
mybrainonfire writes "1UP is reporting that Nintendo had a 78.5% reduction in operating profits for the quarter. 'Speculation from the news service on the reason for the drop makes perfect sense - the GameCube doesn't have enough exclusives, first-party and third-party, and sales of GBA SP and GameCube have been declining.' Time to release more Pokemon games, stat!"
Alright guys, which one of you didn't buy a gamecube?
There is truth in humor.
Nah, it's just that children the world over have rediscovered the pleasures of the great outdoors, of playing in the street and exploring the neighbourhood. They'd rather play in the real world than a virtual one. oh... wait...
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?st ory=6051
re Shacknews: "Gamasutra points out that while Nintendo is suffering from reduced profits, neither Sony nor Microsoft's Xbox division are currently making any profit."
Unfortunately, the next major Pokemon release (Pokemon Diamond and Pearl) isn't due until early 2006 in Japan, and if they follow the same pattern in the US that they have done with earlier Pokemon releases, we won't see it in the US until at least the fall of 2006.
I personally like the Game Boy because of the Pokemon games (I still like Pokemon), and the Game Cube and Nintendo DS sounds nice, but the release of Sony's PSP and the upcoming release of the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 seem to be eating Nintendo's lunch right now, and those consoles aren't even out yet. Nintendo, on the other hand, isn't coming out with their new-generation console for at least another year.
I just hope Netcraft isn't confirming anything yet.
Perhaps it would be appropriate for someone to point out that Sony and Microsoft's gaming divisions have both reported net losses this quarter. Nintendo still profited, just not as much as it expected, and they remain more profitable overall than any other gaming division. Of course, you'll never see that in any gaming publication. It's all about how Nintendo is constantly doomed. Yeah right.
From the article:
"Still, the company's performing far better than its competition. Sony and Microsoft stand to suffer ridiculous losses as next-generation moves into full swing, whereas Nintendo's likely to continue operating in the black, simply receiving less profit than before, rather than none at all."
Also, isn't it possible they simply aren't having as much profit because they are spending money on development of the new console, etc?
Some profit is better than no profit.
According ot the article, N's profits are down, but they are still operating in the black. Seems that when they're operating at 80% profit less, they still do OK.
They just haven't had a blockbuster game recently.
Even still, unless Nintendo don't do something, they'll fall by the wayside like SEGA did.
READY.
PRINT ""+-0
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Reminds me of Sega's end.
I wonder if the market can ever support more than 2 consoles. Sega went under after Playstation came out. This may be the ultimate result (for Nintendo) of the success of the Xbox.
But far be it from anyone in the word of investor driven "growth at any cost" to acknowledge that fact.
They're still in the black, they're still making a profit, they're not going out of business.
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
If you look for some hard numbers, it means that Nintendo only got about 3.75 billion yen in profit this quarter.
Sony's also annouced results today. Their game division finished the quarter with an operating loss of 5.9 billion yen. I don't know about Microsoft game division but I'm pretty sure they're not making money.
Nintendo execs. might not be dancing back in the boardroom, but I think they're happier than Sony and Microsoft.
"..but how did the other guys do?"
They had losses, of course. Nintendo is financially healthy while Sony's in billions of dollars worth of debt (60billion, IIRC) and Microsoft's gaming division is losing money. But of course it's Nintendo who's doomed!
The posting of the article itself outlines what is perhaps Nintendo's biggest problem: its image. Just from reading the comments already here, you can see people presuming that Nintendo's going to go under or stop making consoles. I honestly have no idea how this crap gets posted everywhere, though I wouldn't put it passed either Sony's or Microsoft's marketing departments.
Nintendo is not a division of an extremely successful multinational corporation: it is a multinational corporation. There is nothing to support it if it fails to show a profit.
The drop in sales must be due to.... piracy... oh, wait..
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Well, Nintendo's been on about the overall decline of gaming in Japan for a while now, and they've been promoting their DS as a solution to the problem. I haven't been able to find anything on Nintendo's earnings report to verify, but my traditional sources are US centric.
Without being able to read the fine details, the decline probably revolves around a lot. This quarter was relatively empty on the Gamecube; this is traditional among game makers, their big hits come in the Christmas gift-giving season. The DS really only had one big game for them: Nintendogs. While it did sell quite well, and broke into many non-traditional demographic groups, a single game can't really carry em. And while the DS is supposed to be the 3rd pillar of Nintendo gaming, it seems to truly be the replacement for the GBA, which is in decline and appears to be throwing a last hurrah this Thanksgiving. Another thing is that Nintendo traditionally invests a good part of their short term savings in US dollars, and a lot of their operations work in dollars. So when the price falls, they lose Yen, and everything costs them more. Overall, I think the strategy has helped them overcome the various problems the Yen and Japanese economy had over the past ten years, but it can crop up in times like this.
The good news is that they're on track for an excellent quarter. Twilight Princess should break some records and move some more Cubes. August appears to be the day in which the DS will explode onto the US mainstream with both Nintendogs and DS Wars on the same day. Now that's a back to school special. Jump Superstars is already looking to be a rather big hit in Japan for the DS, judging by preorders. It could also well be that Nintendo is paying forward a lot of money for advertising in the near future for all these big hits. Finally, remember that they're still making money, just not as much as the last quarter, which saw the sale of a couple million Dual Screens and games. Given that the market is up on their stock at the moment, you might expect next quarter to really take off if their plans succeed.
It's just a summer slowdown, probably happens nearly every year, only less pronounced when they aren't also launching a new handheld the previous quarter.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
* Gamecube not competitive enough with PS2
The hardware's superior, where's the software? Looks like Nintendo scared too many developers away with their previous N64 policies, and now they don't have the install base to attract enough anymore.
* Nintendo DS too bulky compared to PSP
This is a load of crap. My husband owns both, he's a professional game reviewer for a major magazine (print, not web). Guess which one fits in his jeans pocket? I'll give you a hint, it's not the one that attracts dust from 20 meters, is so expensive you're constantly nervous about scratching or dropping it, has constant hardware problems (his has a broken UMD latch but no dead pixels fortunately), has almost no titles, has no easy way to find other people to play wireless games with, has been delayed for made up reasons in most of the world, and has "support" in the form of patches that break anything interesting you can do with it.
DSlinux.org and Gamemaker port for the win!
* People are waiting for PS3 (Cell processor + Linux!), not GC3
I think people are waiting for a console they can actually afford that has some games they want. I've seen a good dozen HD trailers of complete or nearly so Xbox 360 games, where's the PS2 titles? Any killer apps yet? I haven't seen any. Maybe developers are having problems dealing with a CPU that has terrible integer performance and a wacky memory system with too little local memory to do a few algorithms like say... collision detection on the SPEs?
Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!
AC, you raise an interesting point.
Microsoft is still in the video game business only because they have the Windows cash cow to ride in on. Sony rides solely on their name, as best as I can tell. No one I know really wants a PS2 because the games are that much better (Ok, Denny really likes Ys, but aside from that...), but because they know the Sony brand is "King of A/V".
The way I see it, the video game magazines have destroyed N's image. They've been buzzing Sony since the beginning, even though the N64 had clearly superior graphics and games (yes, all three of them). (And yes, I'm familiar with the reasons the N64 did poorly: game prices, developer support, etc.).
Of course, I doubt anyone on Slashdot would actually admit to owning a Gamecube if asked. I mean really. Who here enjoyed Mario Kart: Double Dash LAN Parties? Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles? Mario Sunshine? Resident Evil 4? Rogue Squadron? Super Smash Bros. Melee?
Sure, there's only a dozen (give or take) games for the 'cube, but I can't find any really unique games for the other systems. Well... there is that PS2 game where you roll the ball and absorb everything you pass over... what's it called?... oh well.
Deja Vu
n. 1. The sensation that you've read this very article before.
A lot of people I know skipped out on buying a Gamecube simply because it was damn near impossible to pirate the games. IMO, you want an early success for your console? Let the games be copyable. Yeah, it'll hurt sales to begin with, but its probably the best way to stir up some interest (not to mention building up some trust among gamers) early on. If the games are good enough, most people will end up buying them anyway. You want an example, just look at the GC's current competition.
More half ass stuff from 1up.They post what they want,so they can bash who they want.
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Sony=52Million in the Red
"Sony's game unit, which makes the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable gaming consoles, saw a 64 percent sales increase to 105.4 billion yen ($941.1 million). But the division also booked a 5.9 billion yen ($52.7 million) operating loss due to marketing and research expenses. That loss widened from 2.9 billion yen the previous year.
Shipments of the PSP, which went on sale late last year in Japan and earlier this year in the United States, totaled 2.09 million worldwide, while PS2 sales rose nearly fivefold to 3.53 million units. "
http://www.forbes.com/associatedpress/feeds/ap/20
Microsoft=178 Million in the red..
"A 22 percent spike in Xbox sales narrowed the company's losses in its home and entertainment division to $179 million, compared to $340 million a year ago.
"I think that, to some degree, validates Microsoft's business model in getting into the console space in the first place," Rosoff said. "Microsoft is selling more games and fewer consoles, and that's really the business model. They acknowledged it would be expensive to get a foothold in the market."
http://www.forbes.com/associatedpress/feeds/ap/20
Nintendo=In the black with a thing called PROFIT
Read there returns here.
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/annual_report.jsp
Nintendo is not going to be closing up anytime soon.They have made a big profit in seven of the past 8 quarters.Barly red in the 8 to make any diff for the year, which was deep into the black.
Sony has been hit and miss.There game part of there company has been one of the few things making any money, even tho they have to sell 2-3 times as much as nintendo to make even close to same profit.
Microsoft has only had one quater of profit sense the xbox has come out, if it wasn't because they have a big company to back it up, it would have been canned a long time ago.
I never realized Nintendo games were geared towards any particular age range. They are kid-friendly, but hell if I don't find the games just as fun as I did when I was 6. When do you become too 'mature' for Super Mario Brothers, exactly? To me, Mario Party is just so much funner than 'yet another multiplayer frag fest', but I guess that's probably because I feel more thought was put into making the game fun. (They couldn't just give you a choice of 6-10 weapons and have you run around and shoot people.)
Whenever I hear this criticism about "more mature games", it seems more a request for Nintendo to play to gamers' insecurities than anything. When I play a Mario, or Zelda, etc. game, I don't think "geez, Nintendo's treating me like a kid! Where's something that plays to my need for raw violence, bloodletting and gritty realism?" I think - gee, the gameplays really good, the game is huge, and all the best parts aren't cut-scenes. (Unlike most other games out there.) But apparently many gamers don't agree. Games have to be complicated, be badass and 'realistic', or be like movies, to be playable. Not to worry, Sony and Microsoft have got those folks covered. FPSs and sports (i.e. racing) games are flooding those platforms.
Personally, I don't see this as cause for alarm. When Nintendo's in the red, and the other two vendors are making gobs of cash (at least up until recently, MS was bleeding cash on XBox) then let me know. But hey, I'm a Mac user and so I'm quite used to people predicting the imminent death of a profitable company. :)
From a far more informing Gamespot article here
"It also can't be understated that Nintendo saw a profit in its last quarter. By comparison, Sony Computer Entertainment today reported a quarterly loss of 5.9 billion yen ($52.6 million). Last week, Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division, which makes the Xbox, said it lost $179 million during its last quarter.
I'd take a profit over a loss any day of the week. It's also the first time Sony has ever had two back-to-back losses.
"Unlike either Sony or Microsoft, Nintendo does not have enormous financial backing from other divisions which can offset losses."
Well, if they go out of business, doesn't that set up a perfect anti-trust trial, in this case, against both? If you purposefully sell something at a loss simply to kill competition?
I mean, this isn't like the Windows with IE and bundling. We're talking about flat out sales of valuable systems at big loses.
I project that when those two cases are settled, probably 10 years from now (they'll file in 5), Nintendo will have probably made more money from Sony and MS than they ever did competing against them. Who knows, maybe they will do better than Netscape in terms of real results (breakup).
I8-D
When I first heard what the DS was (remember, it was a secretive thing for a while, much like the revolution is now) it just brought back into my mind this two-screen kick Nintendo has been on for several years. Its a cool idea, definetely, two screens to work with, one dedicated to stats, the other to gameplay. Or a screen to keep to yourself, whatever.
Thing is though, Nintendo has never gotten it to take off, they had wanted to do it with the N64, but never got around to it. Did it with the GBA and Gamecube, but it was rarely used, even with Square giving them a Final Fantasy to promote it! Sure, it wasnt a numbered FF, but its the thought that counts.
Point is, they've wanted to do this for a while, I think we can all see the benefits of it. And so far, the DS has been Nintendos best attempt at getting the two-screen style going. Still though, there is a lack of interest. For whatever reason, good games are passing on the DS, at least for now.
Nintendo made my first video game console, and hopefully they'll make my last, but to reiterate what everyone else has said, they need to change to make it happen. Not just being different either. I say go ahead and imitate your competitor's best Nintendo, Lord knows they've imitated you. But once you've done that, improve on it in that classic Nintendo style, and you'll be console king once more!
That said though, those PSPs are far too fragile feeling to really make them that portible. Hell, I'm more comfortable carrying my iPod with me, and it cost twice as much!!! (40GB 3rd Gen, btw)
Stern Electronics is probably the best example I could give to refute those who think profitability is so bad.
Stern are the only remaining pinball manufacturers in the world. Midway/Williams, Gottlieb, Sega, Atari, you name it - all gone.
How did Stern survive? Well, they never were into the glitsy uber-electronic versions of pinball that Midway and Sega were killing themselves over. They simply did a simple thing: made FUN pinballs modestly.
Eventually, their competitors priced themselves out of the market or found more profitable venues (Midway's arcade division produces gambling machines). With Sony and Microsoft not even close to breaking even after all this time, you know the next generation will be even worse for them. The PS3 is practically a supercomputer in console form, and the 360 will be more powerful than just about any PC you can put together.
The ultimate question is: will they EVER turn a profit? I don't believe they will and in the meantime, Nintendo may experience a loss in sales to older, more demanding gamers, but they will continue to sail on through and IN THE BLACK.
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
On the other hand, it probably takes a real adult, mature person to look beyond the superficials and have a deeper understanding of things. Most people just want their fix of blood and gore it seems. But that doesn't make them any more mature or adult. In fact, most of the people I know of who love blood and gore in games are kids.
Clever signature text goes here.
Funny you would compare them to Apple while Apple is making a killing in the market.
... by doing what they think is best, and being judged on their product rather than having people who have checked out LONG AGO try and tell them what to do.
Dude, I really don't mind that Honda Civics or Pontiac Grand Ams or whatever it is today outsells everything out there.
But please do not mess with the niche players; if they did everything that fans were asking for, the companies in a million other markets (ie, MS, Sony) would beat them everytime. They will survive by not catering to you, but retaining a portion of the market just like Apple does
You clearly arn't interested in what they have been doing since the SNES, so why do you care? Download ZNES, enjoy, and guy the PS2. I'm not being arrogant, I fully respect your decision, just like you should respect that some of us actually LIKE what Nintendo has been doing since the SNES.
"Old man yells at systemd"
The obvious answer is that the 360 is closer to it's launch date then the PS3. Wouldn't it actually be kind of strange if it didn't have more in the way of game trailers, etc, already running?
Time to release more Pokemon games, stat!
Please STFU. Pokemon RPGs are a lot more indepth then people give them credit for. Each pokemon stats wise have hundreds of varients and tactics, far more then the latest FF menu slogging interactive movie.
When you can tell me what EV, IVs and base stats are relating to pokemon and I might listen to you're opinion. Untill then you're taking cheap shots at a fantastic RPG series which happens to be easy enough to pick up and play it's marketed to kids.
I like muppets.
1 quarter (that's 1/4 of a year) with less profits is not plummeting.
There's very little of interest on the PS2 and XBOX, they've got their bright points, but in general, it's a bunch of rehashed racing, sports, hack and slash, fps crap. There's a lot of quantity, but the quality is severely lacking..
Nintendo hasn't had much come out right now, however, when they do, and their profits go right back up again, how do you want your crow? Broiled, in a pie, fricasseed?
About the only point that the great grandparent made that makes any sense is their need for 3rd party developers. You say OH NO, Teh New Controll3rz! Like MS or Sony didn't make radical changes in their consoles for the next generation. Nintendo's attitude might need fixing, but the fact that they're pushing forward innovation in input devices isn't the reason people aren't making 3rd party titles.
They might try something like getting small 3rd parties involved, inexpensive (or loaner) dev systems, complete APIs, support for devs, etc.. they're much more likely to get something worthwhile from that instead of from EA and the other slave driving content recyclers.
Nintendo can remain a niche player, there's more than enough room, and money in the market for someone who makes games lke they do.
He tried to kill me with a forklift!
As an owner of all three consoles and reasonably frequent game buyer (1 or 2 a month), I like the choice of being able to pick the best game on whatever platform... unfortunately when games come out on multiple platforms the GC always seems to be the more expensive version, and I'd be a fool to pick it after spending money on all the consoles just so I can get the best value :-) So for Price of Persia, XIII and more recently killer7, I went for the PS2 versions because, well, it they were all about £8 cheaper than the equivalent Gamecube edition.
:-)
Does Nintendo not see the value in paring down their costs for non-exclusive titles, just so that their GC owners (and fans of their exclusives, Zelda, Mario, Pikmin etc.) can build up a library on their platform? As it stands I really don't own many GC games, but I do appreciate the big N's higher quality control (loading times? what loading times?) and would like to enjoy it a bit more often.
Mind you, this is all from a cheapass who's bought maybe 4 games in the last 4 years actually *new*, and all the rest second hand
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
Let's face it, Nintendo applied the "we'll give consoles at a loss, and overcharge for games" model long before Sony or MS were anywhere near interested in consoles at all.
/. booing MS and cheering a far worse monopolist.
So Nintendo's case in an anti-trust lawsuit would be... what? "Your honour, they did the _exact_ same thing we did, but took a bigger loss"? I think the judge would have to call a recess just to stop laughing.
Plus, it's sorta ironic, that what goes around comes around. And I don't just mean dumping prices on hardware. Nintendo, for all its other merits, was a far nastier monopolist than MS when it was at the top.
Anyone else remember the exclusivity contracts they made developpers sign? No, I don't mean the _nice_ MS way of "we'll give you a big wad of cash if you give one exclusivity on this one game for a year." Nosiree, bob. Nintendo's version was more like signing yourself into exclusive serfdom, for life. Sorta "we're the Big N, we're King. If you want to be allowed to develop for our console, you worthless insignifficant peon, sign there that you're not allowed to _ever_ publish _any_ game for any other system."
Took some desperate lawsuits to get that crap declared illegal.
Remember the anti-competitive behaviour in Europe? Yeah, Nintendo got convicted and fined as a monopolist over here. Not only that, but they cheerfully continued doing it during the trial, on the explicit assumption that they'll make more money out of it than the EU can fine them. Much to their surprise, the EU had a nastier bite than Nintendo estimated. But still, it's the kind of "we know we're breaking the law, but you can't stop us" behaviour that we condemn Microsoft for.
So I find it sorta strange to see much the same gang on
Either way, I'd find it bloody hillarious if Nintendo filed an anti-trust lawsuit. It would be like seeing Microsoft filing anti-trust against someone. _That_ surrealistic.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
So there, now I've said it, I enjoyed them all, where's the problem? Do I get a prize?
Now, the PS* may have cooler games, but Nintendo is far more superior in making fun toys to play with.
True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
And still it should be obvoius that Z:TP will sell more copies than PGR3. Look at brand enthusiasm (for zelda) and installed base of GCs vs. XBox 2.
Easily copiable game isn't enough.
You also need good marketing.
Sony Playstation : Easily copied CD-R + Good marketing - was a sucess.
Microsoft X-Box : Copiable and Backup-to-disk games + Complete marketing invasion - was a success
Sega DreamCast : Games copiable out-of-the-box (not even needed to mod-chip the unit, just burn'n'play) but almost invisible marketing - was not as successful as concurrence, mostly because the developper listened to the PS2 hype and stoped producing DC titles and waited for PS2.
On the other hand, with such an easy burn'n'play + good general purpose accessories (mouse + keyboard), DreamCast is having a very good afterlife with a lot of homebrew games/softwares developped.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I have owned most the consoles over the past 20 years, so not a fanboy of anyone in particular. But I have had more fun gaming in my past 4 months of GC and 6 months of GBA owning than I have done in the past 3 years of PS2 owning. Its not the quantity of games, it really is the quality, and I think this is where Nintendo excel.
We are not 6 years old any more nintendo!!! And 6 year olds do not have money, 24 year olds have money
No, 24 year olds don't have money. 30-50 year olds have money. And we decide which games our 6 year olds buy. We get the ones that are fun and age appropriate. And Pokemon rules.
More expansive article here If you read the article, it tells you "80% decline," but that's a lie. If you actually do the math, a 3.75 billion yen decline to 13.72 billion yen of operating profit is obviously not an 80% decline, and in fact what actually happened is a decline TO 80%. Likewise, they had a 14% drop in sales, netting 70.7 billion yen.
Now, let's look at Sony and Microsoft's numbers (linked article last paragraph). Microsoft lost more money than Nintendo made in profit. Sony lost about a third as much as Microsoft, but they're still in the red! Where's the front page "Sony's losing money! So's Microsoft!" articles?!
Good lord, no wonder why everyone thinks Nintendo's doomed: the media has it out for them! Why didn't they report on Sony or Microsoft's losses, let alone why didn't they check their numbers/headline/article before posting it?! Seriously, Nintendo has an uphill battle next generation, and it's mostly because the media puts them in a bad light like this.
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar20 05/sb20050331_4850_sb040.htm
While I'm no expert on the subject, I'm afraid I'm going to have to challenge you on a fact or two....
Stern Electronics, the 80s manufacturer of arcade games (including some pinballs), is not the same thing as Stern Pinball, although Gary Stern was involved with each of them. Stern Pinball is what used to be Sega Pinball, and before that, Data East Pinball. It's a pinball division that's changed hands, and been renamed, a few times. It doesn't make sense to say that they've "survived" all this time; only recently have they become an independent company, bought off Sega by Gary Stern (who had been an employee).
Stern Pinball, in whatever form, has never known for making the best tables. When Williams (who also owned Bally) was in the market, they were king. When they left the market, dismantling their pinball division and firing several star designers including Pat Lawlor (Addams Family, Twilight Zone), that basically meant no one was making pinball games anymore.
Gary Stern saw the opportunity to get into the market. Stern seems to genuinely love pinball, and so has more than a monetary motive in buying the company. Without Williams in the market, he saw that it was possible to make a profit, if he were the only real pinball manufacturer in the world. He's in a very precarious position, however -- if someone else starts making pingames, he could go under easily. Fortunately for him, that seems unlikely.
On to point two:
The PS3 and X-Box 360 will certainly be more powerful than the current generation of machines. But there is an amazing amount of hype flying around concerning them right now. In light of the promises made concerning the PS2 and X-Box back at their release, I'm taking whatever either company says with a three-ton grain of salt until the systems are actually released and the play of their games can be assessed.
Point three:
I'm not certain that neither Sony or Microsoft's game division will not make a profit. I'd put more money on Sony than Microsoft. Nintendo is not in as much trouble as the article seems to suggest -- reading the original article sources makes it clear what happened is that Nintendo had a large R&D charge this year, probably from development work on the Revolution.
Nintendo's profit has dropped $120 million, while the revenue has dropped $102 million. While Nintendo's sales have dropped in the last quarter, that is not why their profits are going down. If you are going to use the argument that they aren't selling as much as they did last year then you should see a larger fall in revenue than profits as you take the unit production/marketing/logistics/etc. costs out of the total revenue costs, leaving you with profit.
What was posted was a 1.2:1 decline for profit:revenue - something that is very bizarre to begin with. You should be seeing things like 0.5:1 decline if sales were the primary cause. Even if you get a 1:1 decline, you're sitting pretty as your investment/production/etc. capital is returning double what you invested. This 1.2:1 decline should indicate only 1 thing, Nintendo is spending more.
They are gearing up for the next console generation, that is all.
The Gamecube for most of this year so far has been lacking games, and it's known. However this doesn't mean "Nintendo's dead" It's just not getting the games right now. The rest of this year will likely be Massive earnings compared to this section because We have a couple Mario based games, as well as The Legend of Zelda being released on the GameCube.
There is also some highly anticipated games coming out for non Nintendo properities such as Geist and such. But for the most part Nintendo has been the main supporter of the Gamecube and that's what has hurt the sales. It's still a decent system, but hopefully Revolution will get more third party support.
Because a 2 party game war with Microsoft and Sony as the leaders is just scary. Neither of these companies have proved they are about the consumer, rather about their monopolies (with MPAA actions from Sony and Microsoft's money lust)
I'm sorry, but i've looked all over the internet, even in the original Reuters article and it IS a 80% drop.
Quote from Reuters' article: Nintendo's consolidated operating profit for the April-June first quarter fell to 3.75 billion yen ($33.35 million) from 17.47 billion yen a year earlier.
I wouldn't mind you in my head, if you weren't so clearly mad -Lews Therin Telamon
Profits fluctuate according to market conditions and the ability to control costs. As we near the end of the current consoles, sales will inevitably fall, the same goes for Sony and Microsoft. In the business world, this is call the Product Life Cycle. **NOTE** The entire life cycle for the NGC has been profitable! Something the other two cannot say. Sony, btw, just reported a terrible quarter. The only reason Sony and Microsoft are able to sell their systems for a loss is due to subsidies given to their gaming divisions.
As for admiting mistakes...N64 cartridge, yes; online gaming, maybe; EU, yes (but all 3 are guilty here); First-party titles, the best in the biz, so not a mistake; and product announcements, do you show all your cards to your opponents before you bid? also no.
Gaming culture has absolutely evolved from when I started playing computer/video games, in 1983. We can now sit in comfort in front of big screen HDTVs, taunting our friends, and showing off to girls our elite gaming skills, instead of being locked in the basement, trying to escape a dark dungeon with your D&D buddies. Nintendo is not forcing anything down your throat. That's the great part about capitalism. (Another big college word.) If you're not interested in it, don't buy it. I'm sure EA would gladly sell you Sports_Game 200X or sequel number 7 or a series that never should have made it past number 2. Personally, I thoroughly enjoy the Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games because they're fun. I'm not sure I can say the same about the stacks of worthless sequels in the Valu-bins all over suburbia America.
Fanboys...What's wrong with being passionate about a product? I will never buy another Windows based PC after buying a Powerbook. But that doesn't make me some moron who incessantly rants and raves about Apples. Product endorsement, absolutely; fanboy, hardly. Your list of adjectives describing Apple zealots can just as easily be applied to Linux, Windows, Star Wars, Pokemon, The O.C., Abercrombie & Fitch, etc. Clearly your understanding of the business world is meager, at best. The people at trade show and your catered PR are going to be the first-movers on purchasing your product. They will typically pay a premium for this. This goes back to the balance sheet.
Niche players are typically profitable, successful, well-thought of, and respected brands. The others merely become commodities who eventually compete on price alone. If we did not have competition, we'd be driving the same car, wearing the same clothes, living in the same rigid society...think 1984, the book by Orwell, not the Apple commercial. Development costs are going up, for everyone, not just Nintendo. Before too long, all you will see is sequel titles from EA and the other big few, and some originality from Nintendo. Granted the Nintendo brands are old and tried, but they've also had new gameplay and fresh ideas in each incarnation. As for your anecdotal evidence about sales going down, you are flat our wrong. Total industry unit sales are at their highest point in history. (If I feel like tracking down the report later, I may). The SNES bit has a nice nostalgia ring to it, but you don't see Ford building original Thunderbirds any more, right? Besides, like one of the other responders has mentioned, just grab an emulator and your favorite games. Or hitup ebay and grab a system for cheap.
If whoever wrote this flamebait trash would like to respond to what I have to say, and even attempt to correct me, perhaps find some courage to post with your handle. But until then, put down the PS2 controller, stop playing Ace Combat 21, and RTFA and whatever supporting material you deem necessary to understand what you are reading.
Amigori
"The quality of life is determined by its activites."--Aristotle
On of my family members recently got rid of their X-Box and switched to Nintendo for the very reasons you are citing. She grew up with a bunch of different game systems, but ultimately ended with a Super Nintendo and she was hooked.
Flash forward a few years and she and her husband purchased a new X-Box. They didn't end up playing it much. They found many of the games were just too complex to play casually. They wanted to be able to pop in a game and play for a few hours without having to go through boot camp.
The GameCube ended up being the perfect system. It had updated versions of many of the games they liked from old Nintendo systems (F-Zero, Metroid, Mario Kart), they are pretty easy to learn, and they had more options for playing games together. They weren't really into multiplayer FPS, but they would race each other in Mario Kart any day.
Just a little empirical evidence to support your point. As video gaming becomes more popular, more niches are going to open up; Nintendo is probably smart to stick with the family space. Heck, even hardcore gamers like to play games like Lumines every now and then. Personally, I wish Katamari Damacy was on the GC.
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In X-Windows the client serves YOU!
Basically what the article said was while Nintendo reduced its costs, its still in the black and more importantly it said unlike Sony and Microsoft actually making money and not operating in the red, and look to stay that way even when they release the Revolution. Both Sony and Microsoft are looking to take insain hits in the push to release theirs
I dont know about you but the whole point of being in buisness is to make money, and Nintendo does that every year. A lot of the "faiilure" of other makers is not that they dont have superior systems, its that they spent way too much promoting a system that they where selling for a loss... something Nintendo has NEVER done cause they know their limits and know what happens if you dont follow them (Virtual Boy anyone?)
Alreadys the PSP is on its way out with barely a hint at any decent games coming while the DS has a slew of games that have boosted the sales in Japan well past the PSP. The revolution is poised to be a decent 2nd system that /gasp DOESNT SELL FOR A LOSS unlike the 360 and PS3 which will... so every system they sell MAKES money.
Nintendo also has a pretty hefty piggy bank that they havent even touched recently because of the fact they make a profit every year.
Nintendos far from over, they are the Apple of the gamming world, and everyone knows you can make a mint fast, but its the ones who refine what they do and do it day in day out with profit who in the end win. The PS3 and 360 can be awsome machines, but if they produce too much loss for their respective companys they will be cut loose no mater how many games they can sell and how much money their parent companys have. Losses are losses and this who game is about profits.
"Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."
All the platform developers have potentially fatal flaws in their business plans. Sony is bent on owning a format for movies. UMD movies just scream "Betamax!" to me every time I see them. Microsoft really believes that if they can prove their platform is more powerful on paper, they win.
Nintendo's recurring problem is more interesting, and potentially far worse - they are gadget crazed, and think it's great to innovate regardless of need. The Virtual Boy was a real obvious step down the wrong road. If you could have strapped the thing to your head, maybe it would have worked, but you essentially had to set up a chair and table just right to play the damn thing. Cat owners didn't stand a chance. Of course having every game start with a warning telling you not to play too long was a bad way to inspire addictive gaming. As bad as that was, it was relatively harmless to everybody except Nintendo and early adopters.
The Game Cube, GBA connectivity was a good idea implemented poorly. I had GBA before Gamecube, so buying the cable wasn't that big of a deal, but then you got assaulted with expensive tie-in scenarios. I bought Mario Cart DD, just to get the bonus disk for use with Fire Emblem. I like Mario Cart, but certainly would have waited for it drop in price if I wasn't interested in some extra items for Fire Emblem. I also got the GBA Zelda game mainly to see the Tingle Tuner in Wind Waker.
Although Nintendo made some money off me with this scheme, they kept losing status in my mind. By the time Crystal Chronicles and 4 Swords was on the shelves, I was getting the feeling they were just cheaping me into buying a lot of crap. I'm sure I'm not the only one to feel this way. Even though I had my old GBA and the SP, the room the cube was in had poor light, so somebody would have had to suffer. Also, I'd have to buy another damn cable and I was already loving the Wavebird - more on that later - and not really wild about going back wired just to have a personal display, which is mandatory.
There was no way I was going to buy the DS. I've already got a Palm Pilot, so I'm not thrilled by the prospect of a touch screen. If you de-mystify that part, your just left with two screen of the same thing you had with the GBA. So I bolted to Sony for my handheld fix and love the PSP for all the wrong reasons - emulating Nintendo games from back in the glory years. Nintendo's foray into selling old games is expensive - one NES game per cartridge - give me a break. If for no other reason than not to have a fistful of cartridges when one would suffice - this was obvious customer abuse.
Now I don't know what the revolution controller is going to be like, but the very idea that it is going to be innovative scares me. Why? People like familiar interfaces. The best interface is a transparent one, so you can get into actual gaming. If they have some gyroscopic touch screen it's not going to be easier for me to use than something based on the basic joystick, which has been around almost as long as videogames themselves.
The worst part about deciding to be the driving force for innovation is simply that your best ideas are easily copied and you just ate all the research and development expenses for the industry. The Wavebird is great, an excellent piece of hardware, and the first wireless controller capable of playing action games well. But how long was it before you could get a reasonable copy for your PS2 - 6 months tops. Now, every console is going to have them. How about a drum interface? Cool or stupid, Sony's got it too. Thanks Nintendo, you guys are truly philanthropists!
If they would stop messing with gadgets and put more money into game development, it would be nice. It's been a really crappy summer for Cube games. Since Resident Evil 4, I'm looking for something on the Cube. Kid games? I love 'em, but where are they? Ironically, the really best Game Cube exclusives are all M titles. Maybe they should take their lumps and be the kiddie company they are alway
Nintendo's big problem is the same as alot of companies. Namely stale IP. Comic books, movies, television shows have sequels ad nauseum. Nintendo has been using the same half a dozen game lines to justify 20 years and 4 home consoles worth of gaming. In the case of the gamecube, the games are often simply dressed up versions of older games with no really new core mechanics.
But as I said, this is a universal issue with major media companies merging. We are destined to see the same pop culture of the last 20 or 30 years recycled over and over for quite a while. Case in point: why are the ninja turtles having a resurrection? Why is James Bond still around? Why are they working on a Transformers movie?
That kind of parallelism, while costing the world a variety of culture, generates alot of profit in several crossover markets (toys, comic books, CD's, clothing, etc..).
I think something is very, very wrong when we base a company's perceived future viability not on "does it have money?" or "is it making money?", but apparently solely on "does it have a big corporate sugar daddy to support it regardless of its fortunes?"
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
That's not mario. It's his cousin, Jumpman. Well, if you look at the actual Donkey Kong machine that is what they call him.
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
Agree - we're talking about a decline in profits, not losses. The previous quarter the year before they made 17.47b yen and now down to 3.75b. The 17b figure was up a stunning 140% from the same 2003 qtr. Management kept their full year forecast (3.1% profit) the same so the decline wasn't unexpected by the home office.
Remarkable how people want to write this company off. They may not be bleeding edge but they know how to run a game business.
Yes, the breadth of... shooter clones. And survival-horror clones. And Final Fantasy-clones. And sports-game clones, and racing-game clones.
And the depth of... sequels to clones.
*yawn*
Many Bothans died to bring you this sig.
Sure, there's only a dozen (give or take) games for the 'cube, but I can't find any really unique games for the other systems. Well... there is that PS2 game where you roll the ball and absorb everything you pass over... what's it called?... oh well.
Actually the PS2 has had some good original games, as well as a few unique ones, released for it...they just easily get lost in the pile of crap. Personally it's only the Xbox I can't name anything unique or original for...at least nothing that didn't come out for PC or another console first (such as Monkey Ball). Though personally I think Xbox Live was a major evolution in console gaming that the Xbox can claim, and they earn a lot of points in my book there. If you can keep a pretty good friend list going, and thus stay out of the games that are filled with dumbasses, XBL is a truly excellent experience. Before Live voice comms were generally more of a novelty in the PC world, and having a level playing field, hardware-wise, made it different as well.
Though I'd say my favorite console gaming experiences still involve having several guys in a room all talking crap to each other and kicking the crap out of each other in games like Smash Bros., or Monkey Ball.