Nintendo Posts First Annual Net Loss of $533 Million

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CaedenV

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Man, rough days to be Sony or Nintendo. Nintendo can't seem to figure out what consumers want, or who their target audience is. Sony can't hold on to people's personal information and cannot seem to get hold of good exclusive titles anymore, while scaring consumers away by trying to have closed systems with too much DRM.
Nither of them can sell a handheld to save their lives either.

I am no doom-sayer thinking that consoles or handhelds are finished, but they really need to rethink their business models and the way people use these devices. And on the console side they need to look ahead a little. PS2 came out at near SD resolution when SDTVs were finally clear enough to see that the quality was lacking. PS3 came out fully capable of SD, and marginally capable of 720p, when 1080p has really become standard (seriously, even my walmart only has 2-3 720 displays now, everything is 1080p). PS4 is going to be 1080p capable just as 2K and 4K standards come out. Nintendo is worse, and MS is just as bad, but Sony MAKES these displays! Surely someone would speak up in a meeting and say 'You know... if you are expecting this product to last for 7+ years then maybe you should think about this." Or at least make your product cycle in the prime of a display tech instead of at the end of it's line.

Grrr... Nintendo, and Sony (and to a lesser degree MS), you are why we cannot have nice things! And that is why we do not buy your products!
 

wardler

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[citation][nom]CaedenV[/nom]Nintendo can't seem to figure out what consumers want, or who their target audience is.[/citation]

Seriously? Nintendo can't figure out who their audience is? Above all console makers Nintendo leads the way in "knowing it's audience".

If I bought from any console maker, I would get a Nintendo product for the nostalgic original titles they bring to the table with every system. Why would I buy an xBox or PS3 when I have a perfectly great computer?
 

serendipiti

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[citation][nom]wardler[/nom]Seriously? Nintendo can't figure out who their audience is? Above all console makers Nintendo leads the way in "knowing it's audience".If I bought from any console maker, I would get a Nintendo product for the nostalgic original titles they bring to the table with every system. Why would I buy an xBox or PS3 when I have a perfectly great computer?[/citation]

I think the problem is just the reverse. It happened to know so well customers that chose to innovate on the user side more than on the hardware side. That gave us really brilliant advances and whole new way to look at gaming. And that was fantastic, right, but in fact, once the "discovery" was done it was so easy to copy...
The other innovation road was push hardware limits and "convergence" (which in fact is an assured success as humans love laziness and simple things...). And this one is a little harder to copy... and probably, finally was imposed as the winner because its easier to improve hardware than improve paradigms
Anyway, looking at the specs of next gen consoles, don't think the consoles will be able to set apart from smartphones, smartTVs and any other SoC capable host...
So perhaps consoles are products that are next to become extinct...
 

nebun

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nintendo is used to making cheap hardware and selling overpriced games...i guess the consumers are finally starting to get smart about how they spend their money
 
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nintendo is used to making cheap hardware and selling overpriced games...i guess the consumers are finally starting to get smart about how they spend their money

Can't argue against cheap hardware but overpriced games? If anyone is selling overpriced garbage its companies like Activision for pumping out yearly $60 expansion packs to a 5 year old FPS. Nintendo's brand new games are always in the $35-$50 range, can't exactly say the same about the 360 and PS3's flagship titles.
 

hoofhearted

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If either of these companies would just integrate a basic phone (talk and text) and no dataplan (where wireless carriers rape you) crap, then I think they would have a winner. Still make it primarily their gaming console, but many people don't want more than one device in their pocket.
 

d_kuhn

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Premium handheld gaming is dead... there will still be a market for cheap handhelds for kids but teens and adults are looking for smart devices that can do a LOT more than just play games. Nintendo and Sony will need to make the jump to the handheld/tablet market with all it's competitive and technical challenge to have any chance of staying in the game - I doubt they'll be able to do it.
 

michalmierzwa

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I wonder how do you climb out of such a serious financial loss without filing for bankruptcy & closing your door for business?
 

slabbo

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I wonder how much of that lost is due to some form of complicated US tax code like Sony's was. Anyway a loss was expected due to selling hardware for a loss for the first time, and the winding down of a console generation. This end of the cycle is always where companies do the worst. All sales are down for the year for all consoles.
 

slabbo

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[citation][nom]nebun[/nom]nintendo is used to making cheap hardware and selling overpriced games...i guess the consumers are finally starting to get smart about how they spend their money[/citation]
The Wii was the first time they made "cheap" hardware. You must have a really short history of Nintendo.
 

therabiddeer

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Nintendo is the only console maker that is in direct competition with phones. Casual people play phone games, and casual people generally play nintendo titles. They have very few hardcore players, unlike the PS3 and xbox360. It only makes sense that they are struggling to keep up with phone games when the games on a phone are so much cheaper.
 
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Sales are suffering for Nintendo, not from tablets and phones, but the fact that people never bought games for it. It was sold so cheap that many people picked it up as a gimmicky toy and that's it. I know more people with a Wii in a closet with one or two games than people with a large collection like any other console or PC gamer. People in the gaming industry have been talking about this for a few years now. Consoles sold, but not games. That will kill a console faster than anything.
 

osaeed88

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[citation][nom]nebun[/nom]nintendo is used to making cheap hardware and selling overpriced games...i guess the consumers are finally starting to get smart about how they spend their money[/citation]

Cheap hardware? What are you smoking kid? Xbox had RROD issues. PS3 had YLOD issues and what did the Wii have? Nothing! Go all the way back to Nes and look how Nintendo consoles were the most durable consoles you'll ever notice. Now look again, they still make rock solid consoles. I still have my Snes and still works since day one. Heck, go throw your Gamecube out of a 3 story building and it will survive and still play your favorite games.

Games? I do agree that some are a little overpriced and boring, like the 3rd party ones.
 

gilgamex

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"The company said it expects to stop selling the 3DS below cost by the middle of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013." - What does this technically mean? I could have sworn that the 3DS cost noticeably less to produce then $170.

I guess maybe I'm not factoring in shipping & handling and all that stuff?
 
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I have a WII and have hard time finding games I like on it, I rarely use it anymore, I use PS2 and Gamecube weekly. Note also that I haven't found enough games I like on PS2 or Xbox 360 either, seems they are less games made these days that interest me or they are poor remakes of old games
 

alidan

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[citation][nom]slabbo[/nom]The Wii was the first time they made "cheap" hardware. You must have a really short history of Nintendo.[/citation]

no... nintendo has to this day never sold a console at a loss (innitialy) i think the 3ds may have changed that, but thats the fact. their hardware was always better than others, but they again never sold at a loss.

[citation][nom]Prophet4NO1[/nom]Sales are suffering for Nintendo, not from tablets and phones, but the fact that people never bought games for it. It was sold so cheap that many people picked it up as a gimmicky toy and that's it. I know more people with a Wii in a closet with one or two games than people with a large collection like any other console or PC gamer. People in the gaming industry have been talking about this for a few years now. Consoles sold, but not games. That will kill a console faster than anything.[/citation]

if the console was sold at a loss, yes, but the wii wasnt.

[citation][nom]osaeed88[/nom]Cheap hardware? What are you smoking kid? Xbox had RROD issues. PS3 had YLOD issues and what did the Wii have? Nothing! Go all the way back to Nes and look how Nintendo consoles were the most durable consoles you'll ever notice. Now look again, they still make rock solid consoles. I still have my Snes and still works since day one. Heck, go throw your Gamecube out of a 3 story building and it will survive and still play your favorite games.Games? I do agree that some are a little overpriced and boring, like the 3rd party ones.[/citation]

nintendanium...
look into gameboy stories, you will hear of the system falling 3 stories onto concrete, the games going through the washer and playing like new, and so forth.

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i wont comment on the actual story, mainly because my opinions on the issue and how to fix it will fall on deaf ears here.
 

gm0n3y

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I've been saying since the Wii first came out that it was just a gimmick. The games were terrible. I probably know more people with a Wii than either the PS3 or Xbox360 but those people only own 2-3 games and never use the machine. It has finally caught up to them.

The Wii U seems to be following the same path and I expect it to tank as well (though I'm willing to hold back final judgement until the product is released). Without better hardware to push at least decent graphics (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/radeon-hd-rv770-gpu-wii,12941.html) it just won't sell to any 'hardcore' games who are going to buy 10+ games. Casual gaming on a dedicated device just doesn't make sense today.
 
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Nintendo concentrate too much on hardware. They use to come out with awesome games when a system launched. Now all they release is maybe 1 good title a bunch of re-makes and crap third party games. A system without good games is a dust collector.
 
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