Nintendo Quarterly Profits Down 80% 637
mybrainonfire writes "1UP is reporting that Nintendo had a 78.5% reduction in operating profits for the quarter. 'Speculation from the news service on the reason for the drop makes perfect sense - the GameCube doesn't have enough exclusives, first-party and third-party, and sales of GBA SP and GameCube have been declining.' Time to release more Pokemon games, stat!"
sorry had to (Score:3, Funny)
Alright guys, which one of you didn't buy a gamecube?
Re:sorry had to (Score:2)
Re:sorry had to (Score:4, Funny)
Re:sorry had to (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously half of $100 is $50.
Re:sorry had to (Score:2)
Then I reckon you can expect to see thousands on e-bay for next to nothing. Having said that, they are already going for between $50 - $100 (often with some games) on e-bay.
Re:sorry had to (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:sorry had to (Score:3, Interesting)
Because perception is reality in their industry. Gamers are extremely image-conscious, and Nintendo was never able to shed their "kiddie" image. Some people think the kiddie thing isn't so bad because Nintendy is building brand loyalty in the most impressionable audience there is. What those people fail to take into account is that little boys worship their big brothers. That's why commercials for toys use kids a few years older than the intended audience.
The more peop
Re:sorry had to (Score:5, Interesting)
The points I made above still stand, with the added note that Nintendo runs the tightest ship in the industry and never sells anything for a loss. Still, it's anyone's guess how long they can go on bleeding market share and still make money. Like I said, perception is reality. Headlines like this probably do more to hurt Nintendo than any questionable business move they may make because it scares people away from buying their products.
I might have bought one.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:5, Insightful)
The only reason I bought an X-Box was because I knew I could pirate games. I mean, I've downloaded 30 or 40 of those suckers now...
I can't say I've actually bought an X-Box title yet... Maybe one day. I mean, at $150 Microsoft made a huge profit off of the sale of the system. Right?
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:3)
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:2, Insightful)
You also need a good marketing (Score:3, Informative)
You also need good marketing.
Sony Playstation : Easily copied CD-R + Good marketing - was a sucess.
Microsoft X-Box : Copiable and Backup-to-disk games + Complete marketing invasion - was a success
Sega DreamCast : Games copiable out-of-the-box (not even needed to mod-chip the unit, just burn'n'play) but almost invisible marketing - was not as successful as concurrence, mostly because the developper listened to the PS2 hype and stoped producing DC titles and waited for PS2.
On
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Sell console at a loss or very little profit.
2) Sell games at absurd profit to make up for console.
3) Make games easy to pirate to encourage people to buy your console.
4) High price of games and easy copy-ability drives everyone to not buy your games.
5) ???
6) Certainly not profit.
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:3, Insightful)
8) Until they're broke, and out of the business
9) Stablish a Monopoly
10) ???
11) Profit!!!
It's Microsoft we're talking about, they don't want to compete with Nintendo, they want to destroy them!
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Most people actually buy games rather than pirating them. Most people dont have the ability/knowladge to even download and burn pirate games, let alone install mod chips and the like. However, if a system had a fanbase of pirates, they would (in the opinion of the original poster (I assume)) be enough of a force to raise the popularity of the system to the point where it is of a much bigger apeal to the law abiding populace.
This does imvho make sense. Most "hardcore" gamers
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:3, Informative)
No
Do you really think they can make and distrubte them for $100?
Yes
Don't say you went for the _myth_ that all console hardware is sold at a loss? While Sega and Microsoft tried/tries that, Sony (up until the PSP) and Nintendo don't.
(PS: The Gamecube has never been sold at a loss - with one exception. For a few months after the drop to $99 Nintendo did admit to a "slight" temporary loss until the manufacturing costs went down. If that's what you meant then I stand
Re:I might have bought one.... (Score:2)
that's not it at all (Score:5, Funny)
Nah, it's just that children the world over have rediscovered the pleasures of the great outdoors, of playing in the street and exploring the neighbourhood. They'd rather play in the real world than a virtual one. oh... wait...
Neither Sony nor Microsoft are making profit (Score:5, Informative)
re Shacknews: "Gamasutra points out that while Nintendo is suffering from reduced profits, neither Sony nor Microsoft's Xbox division are currently making any profit."
Mod Parent Up (Score:3, Insightful)
Problem: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Problem: (Score:2)
Re:Problem: (Score:5, Insightful)
As for what will support Nintendo if they fail to show a profit? Dunno. Maybe some of those profits they've been keeping in the bank from the last 25 years? That *is* why responsible corporations keep a portion of their profits as "retained earnings", after all. Microsoft has several billion in the bank for rainy days, I'd be shocked if Nintendo didn't have enough to carry them for a year or two as well.
Re:Don't forget (Score:3, Informative)
Something (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Problem: (Score:3, Informative)
On the contrary -- they own the majority of the Seattle Mariners, a portion of the company that makes American and Canadian Idol, manufacture playing cards, and own retail stores. The company is over 110 years old. Don't tell me they just make video games.
Pokemon Release (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately, the next major Pokemon release (Pokemon Diamond and Pearl [wikipedia.org]) isn't due until early 2006 in Japan, and if they follow the same pattern in the US that they have done with earlier Pokemon releases, we won't see it in the US until at least the fall of 2006.
I personally like the Game Boy because of the Pokemon games (I still like Pokemon), and the Game Cube and Nintendo DS sounds nice, but the release of Sony's PSP and the upcoming release of the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 seem to be eating Nintendo's lunch right now, and those consoles aren't even out yet. Nintendo, on the other hand, isn't coming out with their new-generation console for at least another year.
I just hope Netcraft isn't confirming anything yet.
Re:Pokemon Release (Score:3, Funny)
1) Isn't Pokemon for, like, toddlers?
2) "Diamond and Pearl"?! Is this the "Prince" Pokemon?
Re:Pokemon Release (Score:3, Insightful)
Pokemon is just an rpg with cartoony characters. It has all the strategy of a final fantasy game. The only problem with it is they ran out of ideas for new pokemon, so they got cuter and stupider with each new generation of game. In any case, I have to
In the interests of remaining objective (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In the interests of remaining objective (Score:2)
Both Sony and Microsoft have other divisions that make enough money that they can afford to run their gaming divisio
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:OK, who actually RTFA? (Score:2)
Less profits != No profits.. (Score:5, Insightful)
They're still in the black, they're still making a profit, they're not going out of business.
About Nintendo,,, (Score:2)
- Low cost on console / handheld tech
- LOTS of cool intellectual property like Mario and Pokemon
- Appeals to younger kids who don't yet get all the killing and bloodfests competitor consoles push.
My son is 7 years old. Given the choice of consoles he is always going back to either the Gamecube in the den or his SNES (yeah, used to be mine) in his room. He needs games that require little or no reading ability and have a 'fun factor
And one more thing... (Score:5, Insightful)
Stern are the only remaining pinball manufacturers in the world. Midway/Williams, Gottlieb, Sega, Atari, you name it - all gone.
How did Stern survive? Well, they never were into the glitsy uber-electronic versions of pinball that Midway and Sega were killing themselves over. They simply did a simple thing: made FUN pinballs modestly.
Eventually, their competitors priced themselves out of the market or found more profitable venues (Midway's arcade division produces gambling machines). With Sony and Microsoft not even close to breaking even after all this time, you know the next generation will be even worse for them. The PS3 is practically a supercomputer in console form, and the 360 will be more powerful than just about any PC you can put together.
The ultimate question is: will they EVER turn a profit? I don't believe they will and in the meantime, Nintendo may experience a loss in sales to older, more demanding gamers, but they will continue to sail on through and IN THE BLACK.
Pinball, next gen systems, and profitability (Score:5, Informative)
While I'm no expert on the subject, I'm afraid I'm going to have to challenge you on a fact or two....
Stern Electronics, the 80s manufacturer of arcade games (including some pinballs), is not the same thing as Stern Pinball, although Gary Stern was involved with each of them. Stern Pinball is what used to be Sega Pinball, and before that, Data East Pinball. It's a pinball division that's changed hands, and been renamed, a few times. It doesn't make sense to say that they've "survived" all this time; only recently have they become an independent company, bought off Sega by Gary Stern (who had been an employee).
Stern Pinball, in whatever form, has never known for making the best tables. When Williams (who also owned Bally) was in the market, they were king. When they left the market, dismantling their pinball division and firing several star designers including Pat Lawlor (Addams Family, Twilight Zone), that basically meant no one was making pinball games anymore.
Gary Stern saw the opportunity to get into the market. Stern seems to genuinely love pinball, and so has more than a monetary motive in buying the company. Without Williams in the market, he saw that it was possible to make a profit, if he were the only real pinball manufacturer in the world. He's in a very precarious position, however -- if someone else starts making pingames, he could go under easily. Fortunately for him, that seems unlikely.
On to point two:
The PS3 and X-Box 360 will certainly be more powerful than the current generation of machines. But there is an amazing amount of hype flying around concerning them right now. In light of the promises made concerning the PS2 and X-Box back at their release, I'm taking whatever either company says with a three-ton grain of salt until the systems are actually released and the play of their games can be assessed.
Point three:
I'm not certain that neither Sony or Microsoft's game division will not make a profit. I'd put more money on Sony than Microsoft. Nintendo is not in as much trouble as the article seems to suggest -- reading the original article sources makes it clear what happened is that Nintendo had a large R&D charge this year, probably from development work on the Revolution.
Not surprising... (Score:5, Informative)
If you look for some hard numbers, it means that Nintendo only got about 3.75 billion yen in profit this quarter.
Sony's also annouced results today. Their game division finished the quarter with an operating loss of 5.9 billion yen. I don't know about Microsoft game division but I'm pretty sure they're not making money.
Nintendo execs. might not be dancing back in the boardroom, but I think they're happier than Sony and Microsoft.
Re:Not surprising... (Score:2, Interesting)
Hmmmm (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmmmm (Score:2)
http://www.supercard.cn/eng/index.htm [supercard.cn]
With this little card reader, and download game ROMS on the web, you can play most GBA games without actually buying the games. This must hurt Nintendo quite a bit.
down 80% in comparison to what? (Score:2)
It isn't in TFA, it isn't in the posting. So it comes across like a beg for pity and/or purchases.
More half ass BS from 1up (Score:5, Informative)
Sony=52Million in the Red
"Sony's game unit, which makes the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable gaming consoles, saw a 64 percent sales increase to 105.4 billion yen ($941.1 million). But the division also booked a 5.9 billion yen ($52.7 million) operating loss due to marketing and research expenses. That loss widened from 2.9 billion yen the previous year.
Shipments of the PSP, which went on sale late last year in Japan and earlier this year in the United States, totaled 2.09 million worldwide, while PS2 sales rose nearly fivefold to 3.53 million units. "
http://www.forbes.com/associatedpress/feeds/ap/20
Microsoft=178 Million in the red..
"A 22 percent spike in Xbox sales narrowed the company's losses in its home and entertainment division to $179 million, compared to $340 million a year ago.
"I think that, to some degree, validates Microsoft's business model in getting into the console space in the first place," Rosoff said. "Microsoft is selling more games and fewer consoles, and that's really the business model. They acknowledged it would be expensive to get a foothold in the market."
http://www.forbes.com/associatedpress/feeds/ap/20
Nintendo=In the black with a thing called PROFIT
Read there returns here.
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/annual_report.jsp [nintendo.com]
Nintendo is not going to be closing up anytime soon.They have made a big profit in seven of the past 8 quarters.Barly red in the 8 to make any diff for the year, which was deep into the black.
Sony has been hit and miss.There game part of there company has been one of the few things making any money, even tho they have to sell 2-3 times as much as nintendo to make even close to same profit.
Microsoft has only had one quater of profit sense the xbox has come out, if it wasn't because they have a big company to back it up, it would have been canned a long time ago.
Re:More half ass BS from 1up (Score:5, Interesting)
I own a Gamecube. I own 15 games. Many crossplatform (and better looking than the PS2 ports, I might add.)
RE4? Check. Both primes? Check. GTA? Loved Vice City for the PC, but SA was really not worth it. Not much new, worse missions (less driving, what the hell. Edgy content doth not a replayable game make.) I bought the PS2 for Burnout 3, and so far, thats the only thing thats been worth it. I regret buying the PS2.
I really don't care at this point. Let the naysayers keep coming, but so far, the PS and the Xbox have just been expensive adventures in getting brand names beside your television.
My Gamecube has repaid itself over and over and over in terms of the amount of time I've spend in first and second party games.
Smash bros, Pikman, Eternal Darkness, Wind Waker, Ikagura
And I'm capable of dissing first party GC games; Sunshine sucked, and Mario Kart just didn't have what it takes. I still think for the connaiseur gamer, Nintendo will continue having 'what it takes' for a long time to come, and their bottom line will reflect that.
Sony and MS can absorb the losses, so whatever. I've been keeping tabs on the trailers, but holy yawn, Batman. They're all the same games, but with *crowds* this time! Whoa!
Re:More half ass BS from 1up (Score:3)
Go find a copy of Ico. That should help. No, really...go.
And yes, my Cube easily sees more play that the other two consoles...the only reason the Xbox ever came close was XBL. And yes, I think most reasonable people will agree that Sunshine blew.
Re:More half ass BS from 1up (Score:2)
Have you tried God of War?
I was almost regretting getting the PS2 (could have swapped it for something else), but God of War alone is worth it! I can't remember the last game I had as much fun with as I did with God of War. It has blood, gore, violence and boobs. The graphics are incredible. And, of course, the gameplay is awesome!
If you regert buying the PS2, at least give GoW a chance. My guess is that you won't regret it.
If GoW2 is released for PS3, I might just get my
Re:More half ass BS from 1up (Score:2)
Tales of Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, Paper Mario... Soul Calibur II is pretty good, too, and Link is better than the other 'exclusive' characters, in my mind.
Mario Kart is pretty fun, if you're going for multiplayer. The single player is ok, but not *that* much fun.
Re:More half ass BS from 1up (Score:2)
I'm not worried... (Score:2)
Not quite so bad (Score:5, Informative)
"It also can't be understated that Nintendo saw a profit in its last quarter. By comparison, Sony Computer Entertainment today reported a quarterly loss of 5.9 billion yen ($52.6 million). Last week, Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division, which makes the Xbox, said it lost $179 million during its last quarter.
I'd take a profit over a loss any day of the week. It's also the first time Sony has ever had two back-to-back losses.
People like me... (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm not a fan of any of their money-spinning franchises. I don't really like Mario since it went 3D. Never really liked Zelda. I don't "get" Metroid, I can recognise some of its goodness, but I don't enjoy it. Even their few exclusives don't really float my boat (Resident Evil? No thanks!).
Whether good or bad, PS2 has the breadth and depth of range that the Gamecube could only dream of. Whether you like sports games, driving games, beat 'em ups, survival horrors, s
Re:People like me... (Score:2)
No it won't. Nintendo will continue making consoles and games for gamers, while Sony and MS will cater to people who consider only wanting 2 or 3 games for a console justifies the purchase of one.
Jesus dude, you're going to drive them out of business, if you say you like the console, pick up more games because they're selling those to you at a loss!!!
Re:People like me... (Score:2)
Jesus dude, you're going to drive them out of business, if you say you like the console, pick up more games because they're selling those to you at a loss!!!
I love games. I am a gamer, and have been for about 20 years. I have many games on many consoles, and on my PC. I am by no means a 'casual' gamer, I quite like
Re:People like me... (Score:3, Funny)
Yes, the breadth of... shooter clones. And survival-horror clones. And Final Fantasy-clones. And sports-game clones, and racing-game clones.
And the depth of... sequels to clones.
*yawn*
The solution is obvious.. (Score:2)
The DS fetish Nintendo has (Score:2, Informative)
Thing is though, Nintendo has never gotten it to take off, they had wanted to do it with the N64, but never got around to it. Did it with the GBA and Gam
Pokemon (Score:5, Funny)
Please STFU. Pokemon RPGs are a lot more indepth then people give them credit for. Each pokemon stats wise have hundreds of varients and tactics, far more then the latest FF menu slogging interactive movie.
When you can tell me what EV, IVs and base stats are relating to pokemon and I might listen to you're opinion. Untill then you're taking cheap shots at a fantastic RPG series which happens to be easy enough to pick up and play it's marketed to kids.
Re:Pokemon (Score:5, Funny)
More expensive games (Score:3, Interesting)
Does Nintendo not see the value in paring down their costs for non-exclusive titles, just so that their GC owners (and fans of their exclusives, Zelda, Mario, Pikmin etc.) can build up a library on their platform? As it stands I really don't own many GC games, but I do appreciate the big N's higher quality control (loading times? what loading times?) and would like to enjoy it a bit more often.
Mind you, this is all from a cheapass who's bought maybe 4 games in the last 4 years actually *new*, and all the rest second hand
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Headline GROSSLY misleading (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, let's look at Sony and Microsoft's numbers (linked article last paragraph). Microsoft lost more money than Nintendo made in profit. Sony lost about a third as much as Microsoft, but they're still in the red! Where's the front page "Sony's losing money! So's Microsoft!" articles?!
Good lord, no wonder why everyone thinks Nintendo's doomed: the media has it out for them! Why didn't they report on Sony or Microsoft's losses, let alone why didn't they check their numbers/headline/article before posting it?! Seriously, Nintendo has an uphill battle next generation, and it's mostly because the media puts them in a bad light like this.
Re:Headline GROSSLY misleading (Score:3, Interesting)
Irrelevant. What we are talking about here are the total-profits of the company. Nintendo's profits dropped 80%. And while both MS and Sony are having losses in their console-business, both are making lots of money overall. He
Article doesn't mention the whole story (Score:4, Insightful)
Nintendo's profit has dropped $120 million, while the revenue has dropped $102 million. While Nintendo's sales have dropped in the last quarter, that is not why their profits are going down. If you are going to use the argument that they aren't selling as much as they did last year then you should see a larger fall in revenue than profits as you take the unit production/marketing/logistics/etc. costs out of the total revenue costs, leaving you with profit.
What was posted was a 1.2:1 decline for profit:revenue - something that is very bizarre to begin with. You should be seeing things like 0.5:1 decline if sales were the primary cause. Even if you get a 1:1 decline, you're sitting pretty as your investment/production/etc. capital is returning double what you invested. This 1.2:1 decline should indicate only 1 thing, Nintendo is spending more.
They are gearing up for the next console generation, that is all.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Better than competition (Score:2, Informative)
"Still, the company's performing far better than its competition. Sony and Microsoft stand to suffer ridiculous losses as next-generation moves into full swing, whereas Nintendo's likely to continue operating in the black, simply receiving less profit than before, rather than none at all."
Also, isn't it possible they simply aren't having as much profit because they are spending money on development of the new console, etc?
Re:Okay, that's pretty bad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
They had losses, of course. Nintendo is financially healthy while Sony's in billions of dollars worth of debt (60billion, IIRC) and Microsoft's gaming division is losing money. But of course it's Nintendo who's doomed!
The posting of the article itself outlines what is perhaps Nintendo's biggest problem: its image. Just from reading the comments already here, you can see people presuming that Nintendo's going to go under or stop making consoles. I honestly have no idea how this crap gets posted everywhere, though I wouldn't put it passed either Sony's or Microsoft's marketing departments.
Re:Okay, that's pretty bad.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Microsoft is still in the video game business only because they have the Windows cash cow to ride in on. Sony rides solely on their name, as best as I can tell. No one I know really wants a PS2 because the games are that much better (Ok, Denny really likes Ys, but aside from that...), but because they know the Sony brand is "King of A/V".
The way I see it, the video game magazines have destroyed N's image. They've been buzzing Sony since the beginning, even though the
Confession (Score:2)
Re:Okay, that's pretty bad.. (Score:2)
Re:Okay, that's pretty bad.. (Score:5, Insightful)
So there, now I've said it, I enjoyed them all, where's the problem? Do I get a prize?
Now, the PS* may have cooler games, but Nintendo is far more superior in making fun toys to play with.
Re:Okay, that's pretty bad.. (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually the PS2 has had some good original games, as well as a few unique ones, released for it...they just easily get lost in the pile of crap. Personally it's only the Xbox I can't name anything unique or original for...at least nothing that didn't come o
Re:Okay, that's pretty bad.. (Score:5, Informative)
Without being able to read the fine details, the decline probably revolves around a lot. This quarter was relatively empty on the Gamecube; this is traditional among game makers, their big hits come in the Christmas gift-giving season. The DS really only had one big game for them: Nintendogs. While it did sell quite well, and broke into many non-traditional demographic groups, a single game can't really carry em. And while the DS is supposed to be the 3rd pillar of Nintendo gaming, it seems to truly be the replacement for the GBA, which is in decline and appears to be throwing a last hurrah this Thanksgiving. Another thing is that Nintendo traditionally invests a good part of their short term savings in US dollars, and a lot of their operations work in dollars. So when the price falls, they lose Yen, and everything costs them more. Overall, I think the strategy has helped them overcome the various problems the Yen and Japanese economy had over the past ten years, but it can crop up in times like this.
The good news is that they're on track for an excellent quarter. Twilight Princess should break some records and move some more Cubes. August appears to be the day in which the DS will explode onto the US mainstream with both Nintendogs and DS Wars on the same day. Now that's a back to school special. Jump Superstars is already looking to be a rather big hit in Japan for the DS, judging by preorders. It could also well be that Nintendo is paying forward a lot of money for advertising in the near future for all these big hits. Finally, remember that they're still making money, just not as much as the last quarter, which saw the sale of a couple million Dual Screens and games. Given that the market is up on their stock at the moment, you might expect next quarter to really take off if their plans succeed.
It's just a summer slowdown, probably happens nearly every year, only less pronounced when they aren't also launching a new handheld the previous quarter.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:RTFA, eh? (Score:2)
...still might happen to Sony though. Prepare for the Nintendo comeback in 2015!!!
Duo-opoly? (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, if they go out of business, doesn't that set up a perfect anti-trust trial, in this case, against both? If you purposefully sell something at a loss simply to kill competition?
I mean, this isn't like the Windows with IE and bundling. We're talking about flat out sales of valuable systems at big loses.
I project that when those two cases are settled, probably 10 years from
As opposed to what Nintendo did? (Score:5, Interesting)
So Nintendo's case in an anti-trust lawsuit would be... what? "Your honour, they did the _exact_ same thing we did, but took a bigger loss"? I think the judge would have to call a recess just to stop laughing.
Plus, it's sorta ironic, that what goes around comes around. And I don't just mean dumping prices on hardware. Nintendo, for all its other merits, was a far nastier monopolist than MS when it was at the top.
Anyone else remember the exclusivity contracts they made developpers sign? No, I don't mean the _nice_ MS way of "we'll give you a big wad of cash if you give one exclusivity on this one game for a year." Nosiree, bob. Nintendo's version was more like signing yourself into exclusive serfdom, for life. Sorta "we're the Big N, we're King. If you want to be allowed to develop for our console, you worthless insignifficant peon, sign there that you're not allowed to _ever_ publish _any_ game for any other system."
Took some desperate lawsuits to get that crap declared illegal.
Remember the anti-competitive behaviour in Europe? Yeah, Nintendo got convicted and fined as a monopolist over here. Not only that, but they cheerfully continued doing it during the trial, on the explicit assumption that they'll make more money out of it than the EU can fine them. Much to their surprise, the EU had a nastier bite than Nintendo estimated. But still, it's the kind of "we know we're breaking the law, but you can't stop us" behaviour that we condemn Microsoft for.
So I find it sorta strange to see much the same gang on
Either way, I'd find it bloody hillarious if Nintendo filed an anti-trust lawsuit. It would be like seeing Microsoft filing anti-trust against someone. _That_ surrealistic.
Re:As opposed to what Nintendo did? (Score:5, Interesting)
That's not what irony means [tri-bit.com].
Sorta "we're the Big N, we're King. If you want to be allowed to develop for our console, you worthless insignifficant peon, sign there that you're not allowed to _ever_ publish _any_ game for any other system."
Yeah, and you could only publish five games a year, too. They did that for a good reason. It was harsh, and they kept it up too long, but that's what salvaged video gaming. It's also the reason there was a Robbie the Robot.
See, the problem was, Nolan Bushnell didn't know how to keep a tight leash. He treated his programmers like crap (wouldn't even put their names in the manuals, even when it was a two-person job back then, ffs.) As a result, a big block of his programmers split off and formed the first independant game software company, Activision; they were quickly followed by several other outfits.
Now, by the standards of their day, Activision kept their shit together for a while. They were about the only ones. Suddenly, there were 30 ripoff pacmans on the market. Some would crash; a few wouldn't even boot. The market was flooded with crap.
Much like the reaction to the immense mass of crap FPSes in the mid to late 90s (RoTT comes to mind,) parents began to balk, to return too many games; publishers went under. There wasn't this huge mass of other genres to fall back on, like there was with the FPSes; it was the whole market, that time. Quickly, the only games that would sell were games attached to big names, such as movies, since they had the budgets to follow through a four man team for 6 months. (Those were the days.)
Then, ET went big. Much bigger than anyone expected. Way, way too late in the year. The person who managed to get the contract was already spread far too thin. He contracted a single individual to write that game in six weeks, including the art support and writing the manual. Remember, this was pure-ASM days, and it's not easy to write a game for a machine which has no video ram; updating the raster on the h-blank costs you nearly all of the almost-zero CPU time that thing had to throw around.
The result, as you can imagine, was crap. 'Course, you don't need to imagine; everyone throws this game around as an example of the worst game in history, though in fact there are far worse; even though the game sucks, it has no major flaws outside of that it sucks: no crashing bugs, no accidental impossible levels, etc.
Nonetheless, every parent on earth had gotten ET for the 2600 for their kids for christmas. Because the movie had such wide appeal to both kids and parents, the parents often sat down and tried to play it with their kids.
As the old phrase goes, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. It turns out that the game had been made with some fantastically bad decisions: for example, twice as many carts were made as there were systems in circulation, because someone actually believed that that game would singlehandedly drive console circulation to double based on the popularity of the movie. (Had the game not sucked, there's a reasonable chance it might have gone halfway that far.) Furthermore, Sears had been hornswaggled into a contract which made them take the bullet for returns, instead of the publisher, something unheard of in the retail industry.
They lost tens of millions of dollars. Remember, Sears Roebuck was in the seventies what Walmart is now - the 800 lb gorilla whose word made or broke you. When sears trashed all consoles that february, video gaming looked like its first generation was at an end.
It was two years before retail took consoles seriously again. Nintendo was who pulled it off, and they pulled it off by both understanding and duping the retailers, in addition to being at the right technology place at the right time. This required three things:
1) It was the era where RAM dropped to the price point where fu
Re:I'm not flaming Nintendo. (Score:3, Insightful)
I wonder if the market can ever support more than 2 consoles. Sega went under after Playstation came out. This may be the ultimate result (for Nintendo) of the success of the Xbox.
Re:I'm not flaming Nintendo. (Score:2)
Re:Other obvious reasons... (Score:5, Interesting)
The hardware's superior, where's the software? Looks like Nintendo scared too many developers away with their previous N64 policies, and now they don't have the install base to attract enough anymore.
* Nintendo DS too bulky compared to PSP
This is a load of crap. My husband owns both, he's a professional game reviewer for a major magazine (print, not web). Guess which one fits in his jeans pocket? I'll give you a hint, it's not the one that attracts dust from 20 meters, is so expensive you're constantly nervous about scratching or dropping it, has constant hardware problems (his has a broken UMD latch but no dead pixels fortunately), has almost no titles, has no easy way to find other people to play wireless games with, has been delayed for made up reasons in most of the world, and has "support" in the form of patches that break anything interesting you can do with it.
DSlinux.org and Gamemaker port for the win!
* People are waiting for PS3 (Cell processor + Linux!), not GC3
I think people are waiting for a console they can actually afford that has some games they want. I've seen a good dozen HD trailers of complete or nearly so Xbox 360 games, where's the PS2 titles? Any killer apps yet? I haven't seen any. Maybe developers are having problems dealing with a CPU that has terrible integer performance and a wacky memory system with too little local memory to do a few algorithms like say... collision detection on the SPEs?
Re:Other obvious reasons... (Score:2)
Killzone? Yawn. Have you ever actually played the first one? It's not exactly a showstopper. Yay it looks pretty. So what? The 360 games all look on par so far. Where's Devil May Cry 4? Where's a jaw-dropping platformer like Ratchet and Clank or Jak 3? Where's an even better and more absurd Burnout? Why is Soul Calibur 3 a crappy PS2 title that looks if anything worse than the previous one?
Wh
Re:Other obvious reasons... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Other obvious reasons... (Score:2)
Re:Sad (Score:5, Insightful)
I never realized Nintendo games were geared towards any particular age range. They are kid-friendly, but hell if I don't find the games just as fun as I did when I was 6. When do you become too 'mature' for Super Mario Brothers, exactly? To me, Mario Party is just so much funner than 'yet another multiplayer frag fest', but I guess that's probably because I feel more thought was put into making the game fun. (They couldn't just give you a choice of 6-10 weapons and have you run around and shoot people.)
Whenever I hear this criticism about "more mature games", it seems more a request for Nintendo to play to gamers' insecurities than anything. When I play a Mario, or Zelda, etc. game, I don't think "geez, Nintendo's treating me like a kid! Where's something that plays to my need for raw violence, bloodletting and gritty realism?" I think - gee, the gameplays really good, the game is huge, and all the best parts aren't cut-scenes. (Unlike most other games out there.) But apparently many gamers don't agree. Games have to be complicated, be badass and 'realistic', or be like movies, to be playable. Not to worry, Sony and Microsoft have got those folks covered. FPSs and sports (i.e. racing) games are flooding those platforms.
Personally, I don't see this as cause for alarm. When Nintendo's in the red, and the other two vendors are making gobs of cash (at least up until recently, MS was bleeding cash on XBox) then let me know. But hey, I'm a Mac user and so I'm quite used to people predicting the imminent death of a profitable company. :)
Mature (Score:2)
Anyway, it's tough to get any more "mature" than that. Play that time of game longer than 5 minutes and you get an heart attack. No thanks, I'll stick with Viewtyfull Joe, that's just enough exitement for me
Re:Sad (Score:2)
Play Paper Mario.
(If you've played it, you'll get this.)
Happy (Score:5, Insightful)
No, 24 year olds don't have money. 30-50 year olds have money. And we decide which games our 6 year olds buy. We get the ones that are fun and age appropriate. And Pokemon rules.
Re:It's no wonder they're losing money (Score:2)
Re:It's no wonder they're losing money (Score:2)
Lets say Nintendo has operating costs of 100 million dollars. (A very convenient, round number.)
Last year, their theoretical income was 300 million. Giving them a profit of 200 million.
80% of that profit is 160 million. So, for their *profits* to be down 80% from last year, their income would have to be 140 million.
They are not losing money, they are making less profit. In fact, unless their drop in profit is greater than 100%, it is *impossible* for them to be losing m
Re:Exclusives? (Score:2, Insightful)
Just because it doesn't have blood and gore doesn't mean that it can't be played by adults. There's more to games than flesh being torn apart by bullets, namely depth of gameplay. Nintendo games may have cutesy graphics a lot of the time, but the gameplay is great.
On the other hand, it probably takes a real adult, mature person to look beyond the superficials and have a deeper understanding of things. Most people just want their fix of blood and gore it seems. But that doesn't
Re:Dear Nintendo (Score:2, Insightful)
Dude, I really don't mind that Honda Civics or Pontiac Grand Ams or whatever it is today outsells everything out there.
But please do not mess with the niche players; if they did everything that fans were asking for, the companies in a million other markets (ie, MS, Sony) would beat them everytime. They will survive by not catering to you, but retaining a portion of the market just like Apple does
Re:Dear Nintendo (Score:3, Interesting)
There's very little of interest on the PS2 and XBOX, they've got their bright points, but in general, it's a bunch of rehashed racing, sports, hack and slash, fps crap. There's a lot of quantity, but the quality is severely lacking..
Nintendo hasn't had much come out right now, however, when they do, and their profits go right back up again, how do you want your crow? Broiled, in a pie, fricasseed?
About the only point that the great grandpa
Re:Dear Nintendo (Score:3, Interesting)
Profits fluctuate according to market conditions and the ability to control costs. As we near the end of the current consoles, sales will inevitably fall, the same goes for
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Two words... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:If any company can evolve it is the big N (Score:5, Insightful)
Flash forward a few years and she and her husband purchased a new X-Box. They didn't end up playing it much. They found many of the games were just too complex to play casually. They wanted to be able to pop in a game and play for a few hours without having to go through boot camp.
The GameCube ended up being the perfect system. It had updated versions of many of the games they liked from old Nintendo systems (F-Zero, Metroid, Mario Kart), they are pretty easy to learn, and they had more options for playing games together. They weren't really into multiplayer FPS, but they would race each other in Mario Kart any day.
Just a little empirical evidence to support your point. As video gaming becomes more popular, more niches are going to open up; Nintendo is probably smart to stick with the family space. Heck, even hardcore gamers like to play games like Lumines every now and then. Personally, I wish Katamari Damacy was on the GC.