Is this a joke, I can't tell. Nintendo mad a massive wad of cash and then lost some money. They didn't lose as much as they made before the loss. Sony on the other hand lost $6.4 billion. Need to quit worrying about Nintendo disappearing and worry about Sony disappearing forever.

Nintendo wont fail, BUT they will cave.

@Bribo said:

@Contrarian said:

Have we discussed that most of Nintendo financial pain is due to currency exchange? It was wasn't it? I am sure they are making money on what they sell. R&D of the WiiU would be a cost factor though.

They stopped making a profit from each 3DS sale since the price cut, but your other points are spot on.

Even then, I believe the loss on the 3DS is very minor and would account for much. Plus, it will go to profit very quickly as parts get cheaper.

Microsoft lost tons of money on the Xbox for years. So did Sony with the PS3. So that means they failed too. So I guess that means all these multi-billion dollar companies running this multi-billion dollar industry are all miserable failures. Now's the time for Sega or NEC or SNK to jump back in the ring! God knows they can get it done.

Logic Fail

@frankfartmouth said:

Microsoft lost tons of money on the Xbox for years. So did Sony with the PS3. So that means they failed too. So I guess that means all these multi-billion dollar companies running this multi-billion dollar industry are all miserable failures. Now's the time for Sega or NEC or SNK to jump back in the ring! God knows they can get it done.

We always need to remind ourselves that Sony and Microsoft have divergent portfolios and can absorb a loss in one place against a loss in another. Nintendo can't do that. However, Sony is losing in so many areas, it can't afford for most divisions operating at a loss, as it currently has. I am sure Microsoft is still fine, but I wouldn't bet on that lasting forever.

Nintendo is dead, long live Nintendo.

@jerseyscum said:

Nintendo's massive financial woes are sadly a long time coming. I'm honestly going to miss Nintendo when they're gone, but they've done it to themselves. I might even shead a tear. I am also not an economist or a gaming industry expert, I just play one on the Internet.

(This is going to be long, so bear with me.)

Let's go back to the SNES. At the time, it was the most technologically advanced and sound platform with oodles of classic games. Chrono Trigger, fucking Earthbound dude. They were really riding high for a long time. Nintendo of course had their competition with Sega's Genesis, which also offered some solid titles. At least until they went to the Dark Side and tried to extend the life of the Genesis with the Sega CD and 32X. Sega tried releasing.... ugh FMV games on their awful platforms, while Nintendo kept going on strong. At least until they fucked up completely by not going to a CD format, which is what Sony did for the first Playstation. The Playstation sold like gangbusters and had the games to back it up. The N64 used a dated cartridge system and still had some killer games on the platform (Goldeneye, Conker's Bad Fur Day and of course Smash Brothers). Still, they lost the hardware fight while more and more developers jumped ship and defected to Sony's camp. Losing Square on Final Fantasy was bad enough, but it was only the beginning.

Then the Xbox came out. Most important about it was the fact you could FINALLY play games online like the PC Gaming Master Race (the people who spent exorbitant amounts of cash on gaming rigs) had been doing for years. The unwashed console masses could play online with their friends, which changed everything. Halo didn't sell zillions of copies for the single player campaign. The market and the consumer now expects good online play out of the goddamn box.

Then Nintendo makes the worst financial decision of their life. They create a entire gaming console based on a motion control gimmick and see bored housewives and eight-year olds as their ticket to riches. The Wii actually worked for a while financially. However, the problems of the system were glaring. The processing power was weak, the motion controls alienated 3rd party developers even more and the shitty excuse for on-line connectivity completely froze them out from online sales of downloadable content. You couldn't play the big blockbuster releases on the Wii. You couldn't play with your friends on a reliable network. You can't even play the cool little indie releases on the Wii. The housewives would bought the thing just for Wii Sports didn't buy anything else!

Nintendo is now basically the sole producer of quality games on their own system which is the kiss of death for a hardware maker. Rare completely became more and more of a punchline instead of Nintendo's vanguard (ok Rare WAS bought by Microsoft before sucking it up, thanks to whoever corrected me). Nintendo's own 1st party releases even got delayed numerous times! All the Wii's they sold started collecting dust in households, or sold for beer/weed money at greatly reduced value. When I can count the amount of good third party titles on LITERALLY one hand, you've got a SERIOUS problem. (Trauma Team, No More Heroes 1/2, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I didn't include Resident Evil 4 for personal taste)

The game manufactures in general lost the handheld market to Android and Apple, who are now making money hand over fist on cellphone gaming. I don't think the gaming companies are going to take that market back anytime soon.

People abandoned them in droves and Nintendo started to hemorrhage money until they can make a new console which looks even more bizarre than the last one, when the developers and the users have abandoned them in droves. But hey, another Mario Kart or Mario Party might keep the lights turned on in your office building for a while.

To quote Gordon Gekko, "You either do it right....or you get eliminated". Sorry Nintendo, but it's really been fun.

Yes lets not count all the other great 3rd party titles such as sonic colors, muramasa, the tales games, the better version of okami and RE4, the resident evil rail shooters, tatsonoku vs capcom, zack and wiki, little king story, cursed mountain, mad world, a boy and his blog, de blob, klonoa, monster hunter, and I believe Sin and Punishment. Also there are a lot of great downloadable titles on Wiiware and the virtual console.

As for the Gamecube probably one of the most underrated systems ever and the Xbox should not have sold more no matter how god damn good halo was ( halo is in my top twenty favorite games ever you can check the list on my profile)

As for the N64 it compared favorably to the PS1 and Saturn having a lot of classics such as Mario Party, OCarina of Time, and Goldeneye just to give you a short list.

Also I don't see Nintendo going anywhere for a long tim the Wii U has a lot of potential and fans will always buy Nintendo consoles for those Nintendo franchises

@Contrarian said:

@frankfartmouth said:

Microsoft lost tons of money on the Xbox for years. So did Sony with the PS3. So that means they failed too. So I guess that means all these multi-billion dollar companies running this multi-billion dollar industry are all miserable failures. Now's the time for Sega or NEC or SNK to jump back in the ring! God knows they can get it done.

We always need to remind ourselves that Sony and Microsoft have divergent portfolios and can absorb a loss in one place against a loss in another. Nintendo can't do that. However, Sony is losing in so many areas, it can't afford for most divisions operating at a loss, as it currently has. I am sure Microsoft is still fine, but I wouldn't bet on that lasting forever.

In Sony's case, their PlayStation division is one of the few areas that's really been picking up the slack these past years, but it doesn't help when they have other areas like their TV division, which at this point is a massive financial sinkhole for them.

@sarge1445 said:

@jerseyscum said:

Nintendo's massive financial woes are sadly a long time coming. I'm honestly going to miss Nintendo when they're gone, but they've done it to themselves. I might even shead a tear. I am also not an economist or a gaming industry expert, I just play one on the Internet.

(This is going to be long, so bear with me.)

Let's go back to the SNES. At the time, it was the most technologically advanced and sound platform with oodles of classic games. Chrono Trigger, fucking Earthbound dude. They were really riding high for a long time. Nintendo of course had their competition with Sega's Genesis, which also offered some solid titles. At least until they went to the Dark Side and tried to extend the life of the Genesis with the Sega CD and 32X. Sega tried releasing.... ugh FMV games on their awful platforms, while Nintendo kept going on strong. At least until they fucked up completely by not going to a CD format, which is what Sony did for the first Playstation. The Playstation sold like gangbusters and had the games to back it up. The N64 used a dated cartridge system and still had some killer games on the platform (Goldeneye, Conker's Bad Fur Day and of course Smash Brothers). Still, they lost the hardware fight while more and more developers jumped ship and defected to Sony's camp. Losing Square on Final Fantasy was bad enough, but it was only the beginning.

Then the Xbox came out. Most important about it was the fact you could FINALLY play games online like the PC Gaming Master Race (the people who spent exorbitant amounts of cash on gaming rigs) had been doing for years. The unwashed console masses could play online with their friends, which changed everything. Halo didn't sell zillions of copies for the single player campaign. The market and the consumer now expects good online play out of the goddamn box.

Then Nintendo makes the worst financial decision of their life. They create a entire gaming console based on a motion control gimmick and see bored housewives and eight-year olds as their ticket to riches. The Wii actually worked for a while financially. However, the problems of the system were glaring. The processing power was weak, the motion controls alienated 3rd party developers even more and the shitty excuse for on-line connectivity completely froze them out from online sales of downloadable content. You couldn't play the big blockbuster releases on the Wii. You couldn't play with your friends on a reliable network. You can't even play the cool little indie releases on the Wii. The housewives would bought the thing just for Wii Sports didn't buy anything else!

Nintendo is now basically the sole producer of quality games on their own system which is the kiss of death for a hardware maker. Rare completely became more and more of a punchline instead of Nintendo's vanguard (ok Rare WAS bought by Microsoft before sucking it up, thanks to whoever corrected me). Nintendo's own 1st party releases even got delayed numerous times! All the Wii's they sold started collecting dust in households, or sold for beer/weed money at greatly reduced value. When I can count the amount of good third party titles on LITERALLY one hand, you've got a SERIOUS problem. (Trauma Team, No More Heroes 1/2, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I didn't include Resident Evil 4 for personal taste)

The game manufactures in general lost the handheld market to Android and Apple, who are now making money hand over fist on cellphone gaming. I don't think the gaming companies are going to take that market back anytime soon.

People abandoned them in droves and Nintendo started to hemorrhage money until they can make a new console which looks even more bizarre than the last one, when the developers and the users have abandoned them in droves. But hey, another Mario Kart or Mario Party might keep the lights turned on in your office building for a while.

To quote Gordon Gekko, "You either do it right....or you get eliminated". Sorry Nintendo, but it's really been fun.

Yes lets not count all the other great 3rd party titles such as sonic colors, muramasa, the tales games, the better version of okami and RE4, the resident evil rail shooters, tatsonoku vs capcom, zack and wiki, little king story, cursed mountain, mad world, a boy and his blog, de blob, klonoa, monster hunter, and I believe Sin and Punishment. Also there are a lot of great downloadable titles on Wiiware and the virtual console.

As for the Gamecube probably one of the most underrated systems ever and the Xbox should not have sold more no matter how god damn good halo was ( halo is in my top twenty favorite games ever you can check the list on my profile)

As for the N64 it compared favorably to the PS1 and Saturn having a lot of classics such as Mario Party, OCarina of Time, and Goldeneye just to give you a short list.

Also I don't see Nintendo going anywhere for a long tim the Wii U has a lot of potential and fans will always buy Nintendo consoles for those Nintendo franchises

Fuck me, how did I forgot Okami?

@Contrarian said:

Have we discussed that most of Nintendo financial pain is due to currency exchange? It was wasn't it? I am sure they are making money on what they sell. R&D of the WiiU would be a cost factor though.

Yes I recall reading the same thing. Both the US dollar and the Euro have been going down in value thus any money Nintendo makes overseas, when converted to Yen, is less valuable, which means they lose money. The OP based his arguments on his opinions, this should have been a blog post.

Also @jerseyscum

Is your name jerseys cum or jersey scum?

@BestUsernameEver said:

@Kill said:

@BestUsernameEver said:

@believer258 said:

You know what else is, like, totally failing, bro? PC gaming.

Also, you know what didn't have online until Q4 2004? Halo.

Steam completely shits on your argument about PC gaming.

sarcasmdetect.exe fails to boot.

Oh yes, I took him seriously. Ignore.

Haha, I was definitely being sarcastic dude. For a long time, it was foreseen that PC gaming would fail. I guess there's still a fringe group that thinks that way, but they seem to have long since shut up about it. This thread seems to follow the same line of logic that the "PC gaming is dying" people did.

sequels after sequels, new mario game, new legend of zelda game. motion controls, 14 million people bought the console.

Did someone already mention that Nintendo is sitting on 14 billion dollars? Because Nintendo is sitting on 14 billion dollars.

They can take last year's loss for the next 10 years and still have nearly 5 billion in reserves.

Hey man find me a game that can rival Super Mario Galaxy 2 and I'll get back to you. You can say whatever you want about Nintendo, but they still make incredible games. You may not care about them, but guys like me do.

@Mirado said:

Did someone already mention that Nintendo is sitting on 14 billion dollars? Because Nintendo is sitting on 14 billion dollars.

They can take last year's loss for the next 10 years and still have nearly 5 billion in reserves.

Actually, if my mathematics is correct, they lost $461mio last year and if they are sitting on $14billion, then they can sustain the same dramatic loss for the next 30 years and still be afloat. 30 years! Don't hold your breat OP.

@Dagbiker said:

.

When I can count the amount of good third party titles on LITERALLY one hand, you've got a SERIOUS problem. (Trauma Team, No More Heroes 1/2, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I didn't include Resident Evil 4 for personal taste)

You also didnt include:

Metroid Prime

Zelda Twilight Princess

Crystal Bearers

Zelda Skyward Sword

Or Zack and Wiki, Murumasa: The Demon Blade, Red Steel 2, Goldeneye, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Rabbids Go Home

@Landon: House of the Dead Overkill, Fortune Street (kind of), Just Dance (say what you want, it's making bank), Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Dead SPace Extraction, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom (if you're into that sort of thing), Trauma Center New Blood since you skipped that one. Sin and Punishment (published by Nintendo, but that's it) The the first Raving Rabids, Trauma Center: Second Opinion, Sam and Max, Harvey Birdman, Geometry Wars Galaxies, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles and Umbrella Chronicles, Guitar Hero 3 sold best on Wii... I mean, is everything solid gold? No. but it's definitely a misconception that -only- Nintendo games are good on Nintendo consoles. Oh and those two Boom Blox games. Fucking love knocking shit down.

@believer258 said:

You know what else is, like, totally failing, bro? PC gaming.

Also, you know what didn't have online until Q4 2004? Halo.

Aw fuck dude, we're twins!

@Contrarian: That's what I get for posting this at 3AM.

And being bad at math. D:

@Atramentous said:

This is all just silly talk.

I'll second this. And chime in... Long Live Nintendo! I love you guys. :) And I even grew up on a Genesis. :)

@Thoseposers said:

it really is too bad that nintendo has sold the most consoles and handhelds out of the big three, that really sucks for them.

Seriously. They've sold a QUARTER BILLION consoles in the last 8 years or so. The vast majority at a relatively high profit and have multiple 5+ million games sold over that span...more than 10 billion in the bank beyond their obviously lucrative IP.

I don't understand what demo keeps bringing this up. Are they butthurt Playstation gen? Or Xbox tweens trying to prove how grown up they are? Or old guard Sega fans that want company in misery?

@Kidavenger said:

Your personal gaming history isn't a valid factor in determining Nintendo's long-term success or failure. The life-long gamer isn't the typical gamer, nor is it Nintendo's target demographic, Every year millions of people grow up and make the decision to stop playing video games and millions of kids reach the age that they start playing games; these kids are Nintendo's bread and butter, and they always will be. Nintendo has always specifically targeted this group, their games are always safe content wise for kids, easy to learn, and fun for parents and kids. Parents aren't going to buy an iphone for the same kid that would be playing a 3ds, nor will they buy a xbox360 for their child's first console.

The only reason they had a single bad year out of 25+years is that they have waited too long to release their next home console, every other generation was 5 years between console releases, it's been almost 6 years since the Wii came out.

I wouldn't expect Nintendo's woes to be a long-term trend, come back after they have 3 years of losses and maybe you'll have a point but for now this isn't anything more than an anomaly.

And at least we get some cogent rebuttals. Yes, somehow this absolute fact is always lost. Model trains are a quaint hobby if it's even known at all. Comics, despite being the source of multiple billion dollar franchises, is a dying medium. Both share the very real fact they started catering to an enthusiast fanbase and not those crappy kids and their grubby hands. That's pretty much the kiss of death for anything that isn't say...food. Once you think you're too good for kids, welcome to irrelevance.

@Landon said:

@jerseyscum:

Need Blast Processing, goofy colors on the GC (even though those sold gang busters for them on the N64/all their handhelds), did you SEE the PSP screen?, motion gimmicks/two gamecubes duct taped together...

@Claude said:

Nintendo might be operating at a loss, but they're sitting on a boat load of cash. 14 billion is what I heard.

As I said in the other Klepek news thread, I think the 'loss' is being reported in Japan for tax reasons. NOA is still earning them over 70% of the company's turnover and that turnover is still larger than either Sony's or MS's respective console divisions.

Why does this thread continue to persist?

@JasonR86 said:

Why does this thread continue to persist?

Because The Shituation has found gaming.

@JasonR86 said:

Why does this thread continue to persist?

Because The Shituation has found gaming.

@Mirado said:

@Contrarian: That's what I get for posting this at 3AM.

And being bad at math. D:

I have had my fair share of 3am "what the fuck did I post" moments. At least I haven't had drunk ones.

@Claude said:

@SeriouslyNow said:

@JasonR86 said:

Why does this thread continue to persist?

Because The Shituation has found gaming.

Gaming persistence is pure pleasure.

I think that will be the title of my upcoming gaming-themed porno.

First bad financial report for Nintendo(ever?) and they're going down?

Yeah, right.

I'm no fan of Nintendo, and I'll likely not get the Wii U unless I'm bowled over by some exciting new game, the idea that Nintendo's going anywhere any time soon isn't just a pipe dream, it's a crack pipe dream.

See, there are a multitude of situations that have led Nintendo to this year of losses, all of which I think we can all agree are easily remedied.

1. The hilarious over-pricing of the 3DS. There's no reason Nintendo should have entertained a $250 price point for that thing, but they fell for the hype and excitement at E3 2010 and totally misjudged consumer sentiment. The system was rushed for their March 2011 launch with absolutely nothing to offer in terms of software. Nintendo basically assumed that because people bought the Wii on gimmickry alone, that they could do that forever. Thing about the popular zeitgeist is that it's hard to capture lightning in a bottle twice. Much of this loss is probably measured against what were, let's all be honest, exaggerated expectations made under the assumption that the people who bought the Wii and DS would simply follow come hell or high water. Nintendo has clearly fixed part of the problem, having pushed out several successful, highly-rated games for the platform, and the hardware losses will almost certainly take care of themselves as the 3DS' newfound popularity drives component prices down.

2. The Wii, if no one has noticed, has been on life support for more than a year, and combined with the weak software sales, are of course going to be a drag on the company. The question remains whether Nintendo will rely on the Wii U's tablet controller alone to sell the system, but I'm reasonably confident that they'll launch the system strong. Once the Wii U launches, Nintendo can quickly bury the Wii, thus ending that burden.

That Nintendo posted their first ever loss isn't a bad thing for them. If anything, this might be the kick in the pants they need. With casual/non-gamer crowds gravitating more toward tablet/phone and Facebook gaming, Nintendo is forced to once again earn gamers' money. We all know that there are talented folks by the bucket load at the big N. I'm confident they can get the ship turned around.

Hey OP, you've got 70 posts to your name now, you're a paid subscriber, and you're posting blog articles to the forums. It's about time you pick a unique user icon instead of using the generic newbie one.

/hasnothingtoaddtotheconversation

/stoppedreadingeconomicdoomandgloomrantat"Iamalsonotaneconomist"

@jerseyscum said:

Then the Xbox came out. Most important about it was the fact you could FINALLY play games online like the PC Gaming Master Race (the people who spent exorbitant amounts of cash on gaming rigs) had been doing for years.

1. "PC Master Race" is a stupid, overused meme that even Yahtzee doesn't like anymore. So stop using it.

2. You don't need a beastly PC to play online. You never did. Something tells me you weren't one of the early adopters in the times of the dawning of Internet play. Doom run on 4MB of RAM, for fuck's sake. Even then that wasn't considered a an "exorbitant" purchase. So, yeah. No correlation between these two factors.