Nintendo profits sink on declining console sales, weak game selection
By Thomas Ricker 
posted October 29th 2009 6:18AM
posted October 29th 2009 6:18AM
posted October 29th 2009 6:18AM
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Hi there, did someone call for a plumber? I'm here to lay some pipe.
Keith. You bad man!
;-)
dont u just love Ron Jeremy as mario? :P
I loved Captain Lou as Mario just a bit more.
Is that the poster for a new adult Mario game
Yes, Ron Jeremy has a giant pipe cleaner. They have pipe cleaning parties, I hear.
hooyah. Super Hornio Bros.! Available at your local bittorrent tracker.
Why a hot girl would ever let that nasty old man touch her, is beyond me. Don't fall for his mustache, Princess Peach.
Two inches of pipe that leaks isn't going to help much.
Nintendo adds a larger display and a bigger stylus to the DS and thinks it's going to make a huge difference in sales. If people can't instantly download software to their devices, forget it. Old tech is going down the tubes. No WiFi or browsing capabilities, forget it. Nintendo is spitting into a gale force wind and will only get their faces plastered with their own saliva. They should have just kept the same size device and added WiFi and downloadable games or better yet stand pat on the mobile devices and do more development on the Wii platform.
so now can we expect to see the Nintendo DP and DPi?
AWB: The DSi has all of those things you described. Yeesh.
Their next console should totally be called Super Wii. That would fix everything.
You know the solution, Nintendo: give us Other M.
Yes, as in other Mario games, for Christ's sake. Remember when Nintendo actually used to give more attention to their core franchises? Oh, and yes, more Metroid please.
Or, better yet, give us a system with some decent software support. The last time they got that right was with the super nintendo (not counting handhelds). I'm tired of dust collectors.
I think he means the Mother series.
The solution is some REAL games. I was at Best Buy (yuck) yesterday and walked through the Wii section. It was pretty big, but every single game was family fun this and my pet horse that. The controller is BEGGING for more good first person shooters.
Super Mario Galaxy 2? YEAHHHhhhh
How hard would it be to simply refresh the hardware, and maintain compatability with Wii/Gamecube games, as well as Wiimotes. Then they could release some dazzling HD games, but any current Wii owners who are uninterested could ignore the upgrade altogether. A whole new system that would force people to buy hundreds of dollars worth of new controllers and peripherals would upset consumers, but a simple drop in console upgrade (aka some kinda Wii HD) could be a nice option.
Btw, can anyone recommend to me a good single player xbox game with a good story? Preferrably not an FPS? Played an hour of Halo ODST, and I couldn't take it anymore, seems so slow.
Other M is the tentative title of the next Metroid series game, you guys. Honestly, I've had enough Mario, and I've never played Mother/Earthbound.
I see this as a good thing. The bubble certainly hasn't burst its just getting a little slow. Might actually kick them into pulling their finger out and start spending that countries worth of cash on making us some games!
Here is the problem with that though, it would be a case of too little, too late.
Nintendo has spent the past two years on Wii, ignoring the core gaming demo. Even if today's low numbers were to spur Nintendo into a flurry of making games that appeal to core gamers, you are still looking at another 18 to 24 months of game development, before we'd see fruition of those new efforts. So we would be talking about halfway into 2011, before a slew of core gamer-centric titles would hit the system.
Meanwhile, with absense of core games from the system for such and extended period of time, the system has become so associated with the casual gaming demo, that no one even buys any of the core games which are beginning to surface on the system. So core games like Dead Space: Extraction, No More Heroes, MadWorld, etc. that developers were willing to take a risk and bring out on the Wii, simply are not selling. It's a story very similar to GTA: China Town Wars on the DS, franchising that otherwise would sell millions of copies, are barely making it to the 100,000 unit sold mark. So if it's a core game and does not have Mario or Sonic or Metroid in the name of the title, then it simply is not selling squat on Wii. And that is now, after two years of abandonment for the core game by Nintendo. Waiting another 18 to 24 months for Nintendo to look at today's dismal numbers, and then attempt to turn that around by finally introducing a slew of core-centric games, is just too long down the pipe to do any good for the system. So they'll put out another Mario and Zelda and Metroid, and those games will sell phenomenally, but nothing else on the system will . . . especially now that the casual demographic who are only averaging two or three games/year per person in the first place, is finally tapering off as they reach their saturation point.
More than likely Nintendo is not going to even bother improving it software lineup on Wii for the remainder of this generation. We all know Nintendo makes money on the hardware and is more than happy to just continue making profit from hardware as their main source of profit, so Nintendo is likely to pull a page from Apple's play book, and just introduce a new Wii next year - likely the oft rumored Wii HD, and start the cycle of casual gamers buying up loads of hardware all over again. Nintendo does not strike me as a game company too concerned about satisfying it's long term, core demographic, so outside of the next Mario and Zelda titles (Mario HD and Zelda HD), support for core games aimed at the core demographic following the launch of Wii HD, is going to be pretty much what it is now - non-existent. And the numbers (Nintendo's profitability) support that thesis. Notice how as hardware sells numbers drop, so does Nintendo's profits? While old Nintendo's (NES - GCN) profits were significantly tied to the success of software sells on their platform, new Nintendo (Wii/DS) profits are tied to the success of their hardware. So hardware sells good, and profits are good for Nintendo; hardware sells bad, profits are bad for Nintendo. So the obvious next move for the company is a new version of Wii hardware, they can trick the casual gaming crowd to buy into, most likely launching in Japan next spring, and Nintendo profits will go back up through the roof, if they can successfully lure the same people who already own a Wii, to buy a new Wii again next year.
Apple computers does this all the time, and is highly successful at it - just look at the iPhone 3G and 3GS. A considerable number of punters lining up to get one, already owned an older model of iPhone. And even with DS, Nintendo has proven resilient in this manner. Most punters who lined up for DSL and DSi, owned an older version of the DS, and simply were suckered into buying a newer version of the same hardware with minimal upgrades over the existing version.
So no, don't expect to see Nintendo make a turnaround on their software commitment to the core gamer anytime ever this generation - or maybe ever again, for that matter. So long as they are making profit on the hardware, and can keep casual punters re-buying the same hardware over and over and over again, Nintendo is in the enviable position that they never have to invest deep pockets ever again in developing the engaging type of software that typically appeals to the core gaming mindset. It is a sad, sad reality, but sadly, it is reality all the same.
^^ What the Invader said.
Zomg wall of text!!!
The tech gods spoke and invader wrote...
Even if your a rabid fanboy you have to agree with what he said there. It's nothing but truth...
Not wall of text....
Wall of truth.
Get rid of enough lazy to at least SKIM what he wrote and you'll learn something.
Excellent job, Invader.
I fell asleep before the end.
damn you really thought that out invader
thing is, your 100% right
"It is a sad, sad reality, but sadly, it is reality all the same."
nice quote, gonna have to remember that one :P
Actually I find one problem with Invaders theory.
We have no real data (someone might) that casual gamers will even buy into a 2nd gen of the Wii. I'm going to guess when the Wii2 comes out, Nintendo will have to keep supporting the Wii because there will be many who won't buy the next one for a while. It hasn't even been 3 years since launch.
Your comparison to Apple has it's flaws because Apple has a rabid following(Sure Nintendo does too, but those aren't casual gamers.), but I'm going to guess where Apple has the most market penetration (iPods), there aren't a whole lot of people who buy a new one every year (I could be wrong on how many people are that stupid).
@Invader
you should go write a book about Nintendo... that's too much for a comment.
@ Nin
That's the thing. Nintendo is not bringing out Wii 2 next year. Wii 2 would be an entire new system, that may or may not be B/C with the current machine.
What Nintendo is likely bringing out in 2010 (and again on my part, this is supposition, but supposition based on watching Nintendo's recent track record), is an updated version of the same old Wii that is already out. So say they add maybe a small HDD for streaming online content (movies, TV, music, etc.) from a Nintendo-branded online media store/service (like Nintendo is doing in Japan), and finally the ability to play games that render in 720p.
It's not an entirely new system with an entirely new development ecosystem (say like jumping from PS2 to PS3), but the exact same system, with a few new features added to the core experience (jumping from DS to DSL to DSi to DSi XL). And for the record, this is exactly the same thing Apple has been doing with iPhone since they brought it out. And this is exactly the same thing Nintendo has been doing with the DS since they brought it out. Same hardware; new features. And almost everyone who owned one of the older units, runs out and buys up the newer versions in record numbers as soon as they hit the market.
There is already a well established precedent that not only is this Nintendo's next move (they just have not announced it yet), but also that Nintendo will be wildly successful at doing it. True, having insider information on such a thing would be nice, but you know sometimes how you can really know a person or a thing, sometimes better than they know themselves. And you can anticipate what they are going to do next, simply because you have come to know them so well? Well, this is one of those occasions. Even without insider information, knowing that Nintendo has a new revision to Wii lined up for release to the masses in 2010, is almost like knowing that the sun is going to rise on a cloudy day. You do not have to actually see the sun rise, because all the clouds are in the way, but when the sun does rise, all the indications that is has risen (the cloudy sky just got brighter) are there all the same.
I downranked invader for being too long and not concise.
Nintendo makes easy money on cheap hardware and pop-games.
The games being developed for the system are so simple, that there is no lasting learning experience. They are games that are particularly fun to pick up and play but will become horrendously boring once you realize, that a good portion of the rules are based on values the human brain could not possibly predict ("random" numbers), or that you've mastered the rules in only a 3-4 hour sitting.
It's not only the games, the system in general provides a bad learning atmosphere.
While they did add widespread online support it's usefulness is limited. Online play allows you to test not only your grasp of the rules against other players but it also allows you to develop team/networking skills. Emotional connections are developed between friends as well. Using friend codes impedes the networking process and strips you of a meaningful ID. Most games don't support any form of communication either, once again creating a worthless experience.
The thing is their profits were so huge anyway, its not as if they're going down heaps, just returning from their inflated state xD
Yeah, that's my take. Wii and DSi went from being crazy popular to just really popular... maybe a little faster decline than Nintendo expected, but still.
Of course they're not moving units. Everyone who wants one already has one, and the people who don't want one aren't buying it.
Tremendous analysis my friend, keep it up!
I want one, but im not gonna buy one
I don't want one, but I am buying one
I bought one, but now I dont' want it.
nintendo is solving this by introducing the black wii.
how creative!
That's just to hold people over until the iWii Pro comes out.
Wii games need to evolve from little kiddie party games where you just do stupid gestures to open a can or pickup a rat into more mature titles that actually have some depth.
Boom Blox is probably the best example of a party-type game I can think (great game), but eventually people (I) want more than just throwing things at a tower of blocks.
Some gamers actually have the ability to play a game that isn't broken into 15 second segments.
Rather than list all the good games on the system that don't fall into your blinkered little category, I shall just issue you with a facepalm.
> Some gamers actually have the ability to play a game that isn't broken into 15 second segments.
Unfortunately, some game developers lost the ability to develop such games.
And some publishers prefer to go with the lower hanging "15 second" fruits.
The problem is their attach rate is so low, so despite a massive saturated market for wii consoles, they aren't making much money on licensing fees from software sales.
It has a higher attach rate than the PS3.
Incorrect: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/04/ps3-attach-rate-overtakes-wii-attach-rate/
i need proof on that one coolblue.
thank you feepness. always nice to know.