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GameCube (Games) Entertainment Games

Nintendo Profits Drop As Gamecube Loses Ground 70

Posted by simoniker from the mario's-cement-factory-repossessed dept.
Thanks to several readers for pointing to a Bloomberg Japan report reporting a likely fall in Nintendo's profits, as they lose market share to the Xbox and sell less Gamecubes compared to this time last year. They're still on course for a profit of hundreds of millions of dollars, mind you, but the article does say that "some investors criticized Nintendo for failing to announce any significant plans to boost its game business.. at last week's Electronic Entertainment Expo." Investors also seems worried about increased competition for the Gameboy Advance, in the form of Sony's PSP handheld.
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Nintendo Profits Drop As Gamecube Loses Ground More

Nintendo Profits Drop As Gamecube Loses Ground

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  • Only hundreds of millions!!? DAMN!
  • I hope Nintendo dumps the hardware thing altogether and focuses on making Software and Controllers. (Despite my best efforts, I've never broken a Nintendo controller.) Im my opinion, Nintendo is the best console game developer. You can pretty much buy a Nintendo 1st party game sight unseen. I'd love to be able to play Halo and Zelda on the same system.

    Plus, that would free up Final Fantasy to come out and play with my XBox.

    As far as competition from Sony on the handheld front is concerned, I'm gonna

    • Re:They should just do Software (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Dot.Com.CEO ( 624226 ) * on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @09:29AM (#6006669)
      You are wrong. Nintendo have in the past been the one force of innovation in the gaming market, both in software and hardware. Innovation might be too strong a word, actually, but they have succeded were others have failed miserably. The Gameboy, for example, was amazing for its time, as was the SNES. The N64 was the first, and for a while, the only console that was built with 3d in mind. But that is not really the point. The point is that Nintendo is not a software company that does hardware, or vice versa. They apply a holistic approach to gaming, they use their hardware experience to innovate in software (Mario 64), and they create hardware to create a different level of interaction (remember the first time you saw the N64 controller). It just happens that the current console is less innovative than the past nintendo consoles have been but there are a few things you cannot find anywhere else (gameboy connection, wavebird, etc)

      I don't care whether I can play Zelda and Halo on the same console. Face it, if you are a true gamer you are pretty much forced to have all three major consoles, plus a gameboy. And I definitely do not want Nintendo to copy Sony's strategy. Sony are doing quite well, no need to have more of the same. I want new things, and Nintendo have been there. Less so in the past year or so but I think it is more likely they will bring something that will astonish the gaming market than, for example, Microsoft.

      • Re:They should just do Software (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        "The N64 was the first, and for a while, the only console that was built with 3d in mind"

        The original Playstation certainly had 3d processing power. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by being built with 3d in mind, because that's pretty ambiguous. Look at Battle Arena Toshinden. The Playstation was "built with 3d in mind." - whatever that means. As you can see if you compare the PSX [psxfanatics.com] to the N64 [tripod.com], they both have a chip devoted to graphics processing, so if you were thinking that the N64's GPU was a first, y

        • Re:They should just do Software (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Dot.Com.CEO ( 624226 ) * on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @11:01AM (#6007362)
          Disagreeing with someone, tactfully or not, does not merit the branding of "fanboy". Fact is, I enjoy games and Nintendo offer an oasis of innovation where others walk with fear of putting out something new. They never take the easy way out, and even when they disappoint, they do with style (Mario Sunshine).

          As far as the 3d capabilities of the n64 and the psx are concerned, the psx's 3d capabilities are laughable compared to the n64. That is what I mean. It was the N64 and mario 64 that pushed the console gaming world to 3d. You had NOTHING like that before.

          As I said in my original post, perhaps innovation was not the correct word. But the N64 era had games that were absolutely unforgetable, and they pushed gaming in a different direction. Yes, they have lost the edge now and, much as I love Zelda's latest outing, it does not amaze me like Ocarina did. Metroid was a surprise, yes, but I guess we'll have to wait for the next Nintendo console to see true innovation.

          The "you are wrong" part, btw, refered to the assertion that Nintendo should stick to software. I think he was wrong, and I said so, writing a couple of paragraphs framing my ideas a bit. If I offended you, well, it was not my intention.

    • Yes, Nintendo should follow Sega. Let's look at the recent history of Sega:

      1. Sega drops out of the hardware business to focus on software. Makes a lot of noise about being the biggest third party developer and unseating the Electronic Arts. (Or, as I like to call them, the evil Electronic Arts.)

      2. Sega fails abjectly, and gets into talks to merge with some other company. Of course, merging is not an easy thing to do. So far it doesn't look good.

      Possible Future: Sega ends up in a take over by E

      • I wouldn't follow this path. I'd probably consider dropping TV consoles and going purely into handhelds

        Interesting point...hypothetically speaking, imagine if (this would suck, but...) for the next generation systems Nintendo doesnt come out w/ a console, only a handheld like you said. Then for the generation after that they come out w/ a console about 6 months before microsoft and sony do (to beat them to market).

        People would go nuts w/ the hype!! After not having your must have generation fix of Zelda

  • " Nintendo last month indicated it sold about 2.72 million GameCube consoles worldwide in the second half, down from 3.29 million in the same period a year earlier."

    Isn't that to be expected? I mean, for each generation of consoles don't all the people who are going to buy a console, buy one and then focus on buying games? Sure, you can get some new converts but that number is going to be much smaller than the number of people buying when the system is new. I remember reading an interview with someone at

    • Multifunctional machines (Score:5, Interesting)

      by sporty ( 27564 ) on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @10:34AM (#6007159) Homepage
      There are a LOT of devices that are jack of all trades, master of none.

      Look at the iPod. It's not a great PDA. It never will be. Apple won't persue it very hard.

      Look at those annoying scanner-fax-printer things. Great if you dont' care much about poor performance of one or even two of the functions. It's the same reason why the ones that really do everything right tend to be very expensive.

      Counter-point, the tivo-directv combo box. They were meant for each other. It's rare when devices should combine. Radio's and music players are the same way. Look at receivers and walkmen. Surprised I don't see more cd players /w radios.

      BTW, the GBA functionality is almost always optional. Look at wind waker. It's simply a bonus to have the linkup. Same /w sonic.
    • "The more functionality you can build into the system, the better. Now I know that Sony's DVD support hasn't been the greatest from that previous article (I've never had a problem with my PS2) BUT it's a feature that people can point to as yet another reason to buy the machine."

      History would prove you wrong. The 3DO and CD-I come to mind...
    • Multiple Gamecubes linked together is a great idea because I can find other people with Gamecubes but having to buy a Gamecube and a Gameboy Advance to play a game? Seems like a jump...

      I guess unless you already own a GBA because you use it 5 days a week to pass the time it takes to get into work!

    • Hey, that's why I chose the PS2 for my gaming system. With the typical anti-MS slant, I ain't buying the beast, so it came down to the PS2 and the Gamecube. Since I needed a DVD player (no complaints) anyway and hate top-loading systems... that made it pretty clear.

      Oh yeah, and Gran Turismo 3....
  • be a part of the forever-ascending-bottom-line-game. They are an established gaming company that always has a gaming ace or two up it's sleeves. Why do some people feel the need to say; "If you don't rise, you sink."? I can make lots of people happy, turn a tidy profit, grow technically and emotionally and see countless places and people most people won't ... and my boat won't rise out of the water, let alone sink ;)
    • Because speed is relative. You may think you're sitting still, but then you remember that your chair is rotating around the earth, which rotates around the sun, etc. Similarly, business is always rising (did you ever notice how movies keep breaking opening weekend sales records? It's not because movies keep getting better...). If you stay still, while the rest of buisnesses are rising, you're falling relative to them.

      In a publicly traded company like Nintendo, perception is huge. If they aren't growin
  • ... and sell less Gamecubes...

    That should read, "fewer Gamecubes."

    /Grammar nazi
  • After hearing of the eight-player capabilities of Mario Kart, I and several friends have all pledged to become 2-cube households the day it comes out. They may have been thinking about console sales a little after all...

  • Just a *likely* fall in profit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by johannesg ( 664142 ) on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @10:18AM (#6007047)
    The (gaming) press is at it again, talking a good company into the ground before anything has really happened. This has happened so many times now: "company X might be going down!" followed by noone buying a machine from company X since it might not be a sound investment - thereby causing the bogus predication to become true.

    Nintendo is doing fine. They are making a nice profit. They are writing great software. They own lots of profitable franchises that noone else has. They may have slightly less sales than Microsoft, but that does not mean they have been wiped off the face of the earth.

    • That sounds more like a head in the sand attitude. "We're doing fine. No worries. We are making money".

      Being complacent gets you nowhere in a cutthroat business where things are measured in pure numbers. (Microsoft lost a TON of money on their gaming division, but are they or anyone else worried? No.)

      The systems that live the longest aren't necessarily the 'best'. Nintendo needs some killer games to get the GC off of store shelves. You can play 'kiddie' games on any console. (bad move on Ninte
      • GameCube offers some games that are far superior to anything offered by the X-box. Nothing, for example, on *any* gaming platform -- aside from Resident Evil series on the Playstations -- can compete with the GameCube's "Eternal Darkness".
    • I don't even understand the headlines. How can they be making less profit simply by selling fewer Gamecubes? I thought the whole point of consoles was that you LOSE money for each console sold, but gain it back in game liscences and you rown in-house games?

  • I hope Nintendo turns things around (Score:5, Insightful)

    by agentmouthwash ( 609247 ) on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @10:18AM (#6007048)
    It's sad to see Nintendo going the same path as Sega. Right now Nintendo has the same niche that Sega once had with the Dreamcast; fun addictive light-hearted games. Nintendo greats like Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Zelda- and sega greats like Crazy Taxi and Space Channel 5 and Samba De Amigo. I really hope that genre doesn't go away in a gaming world ruled by Sony and Microsoft. The way things are going... I think it will.
    • In a gaming world ruled by Sony and Microsoft?

      Since when did "system which has yet to be profitable" qualify as ruling. Nintendo isn't Sega. The difference is that Nintendo has yet to have an unprofitable system (Virtual Boy excluded). No, they aren't likely to become #1 again soon (ever?), but they'll be in the hardware business a long time from now.

  • *groan* (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ender Ryan ( 79406 ) <TOKYO minus city> on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @10:55AM (#6007327) Journal
    Stupid people say this every fucking year. Nintendo always comes through with games that please their fans, and they always make huge profits.

    Nothing to see here...

  • An insiders perspective... sort of. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @11:02AM (#6007374)
    Hi there guys, this is the first time that I have *ever* replied to a post on slashdot, but I figure that I should give you guys the inside view of the gamecube situtation.

    First off, I am the store manager for an extremely high volume video-game specialty store, and myself and all of my staff own all three systems. I love the gamecube, feel really bad about what is happening to it.

    In the last three months my store has sold eight gamecubes! Just eight! And that was *after* the free game offer started! In that same period of time we have sold fifty-four PS2's and fourty-two xboxes. On a conference call last week, I we disscussed or experiences with the GC lastely, and most stores echoed my dissapointment.

    And that's not the worst of it either. The worst part is the software. For example, when "Splinter Cell" came out for gamecube and PS2 we have sold 94 copies for PS2 and 2 for gamecube. So far on "Enter the Matrix" we have sold 160 for xbox, 140 for PS2, 24 for GC and 10 for PC. (BTW this is the 1st time we see xbox beating PS2 company-wide on a new release.)

    On average, we sell about 4 gamecube games a day compared to 25 xbox games and 30 ps2 games. The *only* game for gamecube that has sold well this year in Zelda. Publishers that make GC exclusive games need to have balls of steel, because they know these numbers. That's why there are so few GC exclusive 3rd party games.

    On the flipside, GBA and GBA SP are doing amazingly well. We sell many, many, many more GBA games than GC games. Nintendo makes a killing on GBA, so the company is not going anywhere.

    I don't know why this is happening, but I fear that it has a lot to do with marketing. The gamecube is not percieved as "cool." It's best exclusive games, metroid and zelda, are often perceived as kiddie games, even though they are not! When customers think PS2, they think Vice City; when they think Xbox, they think Halo. But when the they think GC, what do they think of?

    ***Warning gross generalizations coming!***

    Here's what my customer's think and much of this is not true, but this is what they tell us before we can correct them.

    PS2: The cool system, what my buddy has, the "best" system, the one with the "best" controller, and the most games. I want a ps2 because I played vice city at a friend's house.

    Xbox: Big, black, and powerful. The most "powerful" system. Less games than PS2, but gaining. I want an xbox because I played halo at my friend's house.

    GC: Small and purple, nobody has it. Less powerful that ps2 and xbox, because it's smaller and costs less. Zelda is a kids game, but GC is kinda cool because I once was at some guy's house and he was playing resident evil on it.

    This is what they say to us, I don't know who is to blame, but the future does not look good for nintendo.
    • The gamecube is not percieved as "cool." It's best exclusive games, metroid and zelda, are often perceived as kiddie games, even though they are not! When customers think PS2, they think Vice City; when they think Xbox, they think Halo. But when the they think GC, what do they think of?

      Extremely, extremely good point. I say this not only because I agree with you, but also because I think this way. In answer to your last question, when I think of GC (or Nintendo in general), I think of video games, whic
      • Tekken requires 4 buttons and some sort of control pad or joystick. The 4 shoulder buttons were just combinations of the 4 face buttons. Tekken in the arcade? 4 buttons.

        Just so someone doesn't flame me for this, Tekken Tag requires 5 buttons I guess. But whatever

    • "PS2: (...) the one with the "best" controller,"

      For a hardware manufacturer that has done nothing but blatently copy Nintendo controllers, that's not half bad. :)

      Select button, action butons in a square configuration, shoulder buttons, analog thumbstick, rumble feature... Everything that Nintendo did first and Sony said "me too!" afterwards. About the only thing Nintendo didn't do first was proportional buttons, but even then that's someting Sega did first.

      It seems the only good idea that Sony didn't r
  • "Investors also seems worried about increased competition for the Gameboy Advance, in the form of Sony's PSP handheld."

    Then the investors are stupid and really don't know anything about the market they are investing in. The sony thing won't be out till late 2004, you can place pretty good bets on it not showing till 2005. 2 years is an awfully long time and you can place another bet that nintendo will have an updated gameboy out by that time to compete. Why would they announce it now and give Sony a hea
    • Of *course* investors don't know about what they're investing in.

      This is why Cisco can make an announcement that causes their stock to go up, and then you'll see Intel's stock go up because investors think Cisco...Intel...it's all the same stuff.

      Yeah, I agree with you, it'll be at least a year before we'll start seeing what this thing from Sony is actually going to look like, what it's capabilities will be, and most importantly, what the games look like.

  • Rumors of the Death of Nintendo (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Snowspinner ( 627098 ) <{ude.lfu} {ta} {dnaslihp}> on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @11:49AM (#6007713) Homepage
    Seem to me greatly exaggerated. Is the GC a top-selling system? No. Is it even going to wind up second place when all is said and done? Very possibly not.

    Nintendo, however, owns a market share very tightly. There are players who basically only enjoy Nintendo games. When pushed, we have some difficulty explaining why, except for some intangible aspect to the games. They're just... more fun. They seem to have been designed, always, to be fun, entertaining, easy to pick up, etc. And I don't get that feeling from most PS2 games. I buy them, and I'm almost always disappointed. They feel like they're a part of a different hobby than the one I grew up with.

    I am not alone in this, either. Out of the dozen or so friends I have who own a console, about 5 own a Gamecube. I know this is an unusually high number, but, you know, I tend to associate with people who have similar taste and all. The point is, though, that the six of us are dedicated GC players. We own GC's because the GC is the only console that has the games we want.

    My point, long-winded as it may be, is that I think the GC can and will survive on this niche. Sure, it'll go down to 10% of the market. Sure, it'll lose some of its third party support. But, as time goes on, a lot of developers will also start moving away from the Nintendo style of game entirely. And Nintendo will be the only company catering at all to people like me.

    I figure it'll be like Apple. Never gonna be at the top of the game. Always gonna be around, and always gonna have a set of loyalists who would never seriously consider buying the competition.
    • Nintendo will always have people like me. My first system was the Atari 5200, but the controllers crapped out on me with the quickness.
      Then, I moved to the world of Nintendo. There were so many games, and they were (for the most part) all fun. The best analogy I can think of at the moment is Star Wars. We have this story and we know how it turns out(Anakin == Darth Vader, Link kicks gannons ass, etc). But the story itself keeps us coming back to see the newest thing(The master sword lost its Mojo??). Plus

  • 3rd man-out (Score:4, Interesting)

    by CashCarSTAR ( 548853 ) on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @12:08PM (#6007871)
    The poor performance of the Game Cube is kinda weird, in my opinion. Just to little note, my only current-gen game system is a GameCube, so I might be biased...but not much.

    I think that Nintendo is at the bottom of the mindshare curve, and that is pretty much all that is going on. I agree with one of the above posters that states that Nintendo is going to be the Apple of video gaming. It's going to have a dedicated following that will increase slowly year after year.

    For me, the X-Box is just a complete snore, (Halo is still the only half-decent exclusive, and that is only because of a hack..CTF over the Internet is fun.). The PS2 is a whole lot better, to be honest, having partial exclusives like GTA:VC and the Dynasty Warriors series.

    However..Nintendo got the goods. Really. Yes, there are less games out for it. Does it really matter when....well..quite frankly it has some unbelievable games. Metriod and Zelda, go without saying, are amazing...and I'm not even a Zelda fan. Mario Sunshine was great, however limited by the game flow (what WAS there was great). Animal Crossing is amazingly adictive, (again, I'm not usually a fan of that style), then you add the "2nd-tier" stuff, stuff that is still amazing, Eternal Darkness, Star Fox Adventures, Rogue Leader. The controller is excellent, and it has enough multi-platform games to make me happy. (Tony Hawk, Burnout, Ikaragua, Skies of Arcadia, Timesplitters 2)

    The focus on GBA connectivity is a gamble, and in fact, it's an artistic decision rather than a business one in my mind. The previews of the upcoming GBA focused games sound amazing (FF:CC,Four Swords, Pac-Man)

    In any case, I for one am very happy with my small little box. Nintendo seems to be barking up the wrong tree right now, comercially speaking, but artistically, they are better right now than any other VG company at any time in history.
    • Just wanted to add a few great games to that list :)

      Picmon, Monkey Balls ... but overall, the above post sums up why I am a happy Cuber!

  • Blah, blah, blah (Score:3, Funny)

    by gergi ( 220700 ) on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @12:18PM (#6007960)
    It's a shame that they're only expected to make 1 gazillion dollars this year instead of 1.1 gazillion. I don't think Nintendo is too worried.

    I'm going to back to playing my Gamecube and laugh at those that haven't been enlightened and still waste your time on the other two consoles.
    Nintendo won my loyalty w/ great games, not great specs (though it has those too).

    • Here, here! With 4.5 billion in the bank, a 98-100% share of the handheld mrket, Nintendo is going well.

      I've found Nintendo gamers are smart gamers. Of all the people I know who play games, the more enlighted have a 'cube. Of all the people I've introduced to console gaming, most have been addicted to a GameCube game over one on another system (save GTA).

      For example, my flatmate is addicted to Eternal Darkness at the moment. He's playing until 2, maybe even 3 in the morning. Even when he was addicted to

  • Considering Nintendo's *profit* is about the same as the *income* of Microsoft's games division, I see no need for them to worry.

  • Oh, please. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by 13Echo ( 209846 ) on Wednesday May 21, 2003 @08:44PM (#6012310) Homepage Journal
    Nintendo is in no position to go away. We've seen what happened to SEGA because people "forgot" about what they stodd for. And those gamers that have been around the block will be damned if they're going to let Nintendo go.

    Just maybe Microsoft is selling more XBox units, but the numbers have shown that they *are not* selling the software along with it. It's pretty sad when SNES titles top the best selling XBox games on GameFAQs.com. Hmm... Nintendo has been solid on those lists for months now, especially since the Metroid Prime release. Weather it is Game Boy titles, or GCN titles, they've remained pretty consistant. Unless everyone totally buys into the PSP hype, I don't see that changing too much. Gamecubes still keep selling, and software is selling well enough. The PS2 sales are grinding to a halt. Everyone and their mom already has one. The rest are just replacements for dead systems. Tell me if you don't know somebody that hasn't had to replace their PS2? (Gamecubes have a 12 month warranty, compared to the PS2's and XBox's 90 day).

    Third party companies are afraid to make the jump, but it is begining to happen. Some of the companies that we've *never dreamed* would make games for non-Sony platforms are doing more cross-platform work. Where's Squaresoft in terms of XBox games? Granted, 3 Gamecube games from Square isn't *everything*, but it's a start. Nintendo still has the biggest and best exclusives that the *fans* want. And even companies like Konami and Capcom are finally working on some satisfactory exclusives.

    The fact is... The dedicated game companies will *never* let Nintendo go, and neither will the fans. Nintendo may be a company, and they may be in it for profit just as Sony and Microsoft are, but they are *totally* about the games. You can't say that about the other two, which are primarily electronics, media, or software companies that just want total media domination. Many of us hated to see SEGA go, but we'll be damned if the same thing happens to Nintendo.
  • Hey! I am a die-hard Nintendo gamer. I have owned just about every piece hardware they ever built.(Even Rob the Video Robot!) Anyway my opinion is a bit biased but I have to share it. Nintendo isn't going anywhere. They do currently operate at a niche level, but they make THE BEST games out there. You can bag on their third party support all you like, but let's not forget they have been pitching woo at some very big names and we are seeing the results. Final Fantasy, a game I thought would never return to t
  • I feel that Nintendo was the first. Although they have all of these competitors, they need more innovation. If they stay creative, Nintendo will be the base for what other systems will follow.

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