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As Apple Soars, Nintendo Expects First Annual Loss

The importance of 3DS and this year's Wii U launch becomes bigger than ever.

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Nintendo argues Apple hasn’t had a big impact on its business, but it’s hard to ignore Apple having the second biggest quarterly earnings of any US company ever this week, and Nintendo (via Reuters) signaling a larger-than-anticipated annual loss for 2011.

According to the report, Nintendo now expects an annual operating loss of 45 billion yen ($575 million), a number far higher than averaged analyst expectations of 4.2 billion yen ($54 million).

That’s a loss nearly ten times previous calculations, underscoring the importance of 3DS experiencing continued success (it had a very strong holiday, thanks to some equally strong software) and a solid Wii U launch (a question mark) this year.

Alongside the expected loss, Nintendo cut its sales forecast for Wii from 12 million to 10 million and 3DS from 16 million to 14 million.

Nintendo has been quiet about Wii U since it saw a mixed reaction at E3 last year, and the company has promised more details on what to expect from the tablet-inspired machine at E3 this year.

Patrick Klepek on Google+

116 Comments

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Nardak

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Edited By Nardak

I also highly doubt that WII U is the answer to Nintendo´s problems. By the time the system is released both xbox360 and PS 3 will have a huge userbase and game publishers will probably release games for those platforms which have an already large userbase with varied interests (FPS games, RPG games, Sport games and so on).

Wii U will have a really small userbase in the beginning and will probably cost much more than xbox360 and PS3 at that point. The only triple A games that WII U will probably get besides the ones produced by Nintendo are probably the ones that will be published for multiple platforms at the same time.

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SmilingPig

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Edited By SmilingPig

Its starting to smell like Sega.

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Peanut

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Edited By Peanut

@SmilingPig said:

Its starting to smell like Sega.

Yes, because Nintendo is putting out multiple devices one after another that are failing absolutely miserably, right? Don't get me wrong, Nintendo has done SHIT to interest me for at least two years, but comparing them to Sega is sheer fucking lunacy.

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insanejedi

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Edited By insanejedi

As ExxonMobil soars, nintendo expects first annual Loss.

Nintendo argues Exxon hasn’t had a big impact on its business, but it’s hard to ignore Exxon having the biggest quarterly earnings of any us company ever this week, and Nintendo (via Reuters) signaling a larger-than-anticipated annual loss for 2011.

See? I r Journalist apparently.

I know people are getting tired of Patrick bashing posts, but this is just a bad thought process for writing articles over. Is my writing worse? Yes it is, I admit. But Giant bomb's writing should be held to a higher standard than "better-than hobbiest reviewer on website."

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Sergio

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Edited By Sergio

@GBOmega said:

It doesn't matter which is a dedicated device or not - that's not even the question.

It actually does matter. Not everyone who buys an iOS devices does so for games. If they're not in the market for games, either in the mobile space or dedicated handhelds, they're not contributing to this perception that Apple is eating away at Nintendo's market share. Someone who simply downloads that Angry Birds game everyone is talking about and doesn't bother with anything else isn't hurting Nintendo.

It looks nice when making trying to write a sensationalists piece for a web site, but that's about it.

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Darth Paul

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Edited By Darth Paul

This is just a rehash of another article I just read on Yahoo stating the same crap. Personally, I'm a Nintendo fan til the end, and only buy Nintendo games & systems, and I even also own both an ipod touch and an iphone 3Gs. I have about 6 games on my phone that are mostly things like solitaire and puzzle games that I can just play for a few minutes here and there, and 4 on the touch which are crap for my kids like a roller coaster game and some racing games, but they hardly play them. I use the phone for a phone and a second internet device more than a game system which is why I have both a 3DS and a DSI XL for playing real games, and my family gets use out of our Wii every day still & are looking forward to the Wii U & more great games for the 3DS.

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GreatlyAmused

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Edited By GreatlyAmused

I bought a Wii game yesterday. All I could think afterwards was "Shit. Now I have to actually turn on my Wii to play this" I don't think I have even turned on my Wii since I got frustrated with the stupid waggle controls on Donkey Kong Country Returns a year + ago.

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huser

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Edited By huser

@Xeirus said:

@Etnos said:

@jred250 said:

@Maitimo said:

Do you appreciate that by connecting these two unrelated things in your headline and having that throw-away remark in the lead paragraph, you are pushing a specific narrative that feeds into the kind of bizarre console tribalism you wrote a piece on a while back?

Edit: To expand, I suppose: the 3DS lack of success arises from the interaction of a lot of complex factors and cannot be reduced to simply "well, Apple", which while maybe a factor is not the exclusive reason for what's happened nor necessarily the biggest. It's disingenuous to present this story (really two stories) this way, particularly as Apple's results are not fully explainable by their share of the games business.

Yeah, I am a big Patrick fan, but I really did not like the way these things were paired together. It left a bad taste in my mouth, bleh....

2 unrelated things!? You'r mind scope got to be this big: -:- if you can see the mobil gaming market was being disputed by this 2; Nintendo lost long ago.

Really? Cause up till last year they were making money hand over fist and their stock was doing alright down from raging insane, having been inflated by all that money hand over fist they had been making for half a decade. What exactly is the basis for the claim that Nintendo lost long ago? Do you mean the Playstation era where they went from market leader to significant player but still an also ran? I can't really argue that I guess, but if that's what you meant you might want to make that more clear.

I don't especially have a dog in the race, but the simple fact that the 3DS, helped by a significant price drop, hurt by a worldwide global recession, has outsold the previous monster on the block, the DS, in sales to date from their respective launches sorta says it's doing fine.

I think you're all a bunch of cry-babies.

They -are- related, just because you can't see it or you disagree don't flip shit on Patrick. Go write your own news story and if anyone cares they can comment on it. Otherwise, let the man write his shit, damn, so much bitching.

Uh, where the eff did I mention Patrick? My post was specifically refuting the absurd notion that Nintendo lost, let alone long ago. I didn't include it there since given the quality of the post I was responding to they wouldn't be able to incorporate it into their worldview, but any company that is sitting on a warchest of billions and has some of the most lucrative IP's in the industry hasn't "lost" by any definition.

But yeah continue being a cheerleader for a guy that couldn't care less about you and your adoration. Maybe someone will care and comment on it. Otherwise let me write my shit, so much bitching....

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Mihos

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Edited By Mihos

I have yet to play a game on an iPad or an Android that wouldn't have been better if it was on another platform.

Also, Apple still makes more money from music than it does from apps. You can't make direct comparisons like this.

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napalm

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Edited By napalm

@Marokai said:

Also, I don't even know what fucking point Patrick thinks he has here.

@Marokai said:

Not only "another pro-Apple thread", or even yet another "Apple > Nintendo" thread, but yet another one of those threads without literally anything substantive to justify why he thinks Nintendo's annual loss is directly related to Apple.

Why don't you calm down, Cowboy Crusader.

But in all honesty, Apple > Nintendo.

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SpudBug

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Edited By SpudBug

Just following up on the newer comments on this story. I still think this is one of the worst pieces of writing on the site.

I was honestly hoping that patrick could give some type of insight into the Nintendo financial reports - talk about the currency exchange factor, the 3ds price drop factor, the wii sales downturn factor, the cost of R&D for the upcoming console, and the sunk costs over that time period manufacturing 3DS hardware.

You know, intelligent research into the who, what, where, and why of the story. If you can't provide that, what reason is there for the story to exist?

Instead, it's a brief and empty piece. That's a lot easier, and can probably be done in 10 minutes, and will satisfy the readers who love apple products, but fails to actually generate any useful information.

The first paragraph just sounds like it was intended to poke at the Nintendo fans, and the rest of the article is just barely informative enough to justify the existence of the "apple is real popular, guys" first paragraph. I expected more from patrick due to his past work here.

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bornagain888

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Edited By bornagain888

Stop shooting the messenger, Patrick isn't the first person to relate Nintendo's recent failing to Apple's success: Only the ENTIRE WORLD minus rabbid Nintendo fans have figured this out. Lay off Patrick, he's not to blame.

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Creme

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Edited By Creme

Having used them, apple stuff kinda sucks. Hope Nintendo gets it going, though they have tons of cash to sit on for now.

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artisan88

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Edited By artisan88

God help me, but I am going to get my first iPhone tomorrow when my current contract is up. And I probably won't be buying a WiiU, or probably anything else from Nintendo I guess, unless my 5 yr old wants it that badly. All my friends are hooked up playing a myriad of games on iOS, and I want to be able to play Hero Academy with all them. Thus I too must follow andaaaAHHHHHHGH WHAT HAVE I BECOME?!?~!/

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deactivated-6050ef4074a17

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