008Zulu said:
Augmented reality has been pretty much shown to be a gimmick. And a console is defined by the games it has to offer, that's what attracts gamers. Hate to say it, but Nintendo is losing. Every time they have made an announcement, their stock has taken a hit. That's not love. Nintendo need to realise that if they want to play the big kid's game (home consoles), then they need to step up and give their home consoles some balls.
And yeah, you might trot out that Nintendo will do well in Japan, here's the thing; If the Japanese market was all they cared about, they'd stop releasing product globally.
Of course stocks take a hit whenever Nintendo announces a console. It's a massive injection of volatility. Nonetheless it's something they have to do occasionally. The Wii took a company stock hit when they announced it, the ridiculous popularity of the device then made their stock value soar. But if it wants to bankroll tech and potentially replicate thd duccess of the DS and the Wii it will continue to release consoles and price them marginal within cost of production.
Regardless Nintendo's share price is still growing well in line with general market trends.
And clearly games are whst Nintendo are delivering. It's already dominated mobile gaming even on smartphones. With one ridiculously buggy app. The difference is whether you release an expensive console and rely on third party licencing to make do, which means you inevitably have to compromise on design and R&D. Or you can release a home console at price of production, and not be beholden to what third party wants.
Ultimately Nintendo was never going to release the Switch for more than, or less than, 300. That's never been their corporate model to drastically increase volatility or price themselves out of competition.
And Nintendo's market share makes it singularly the largest gaming tech company in the world. Home consoles for a long time now haven't been seen as the 'big kids hame'. Pokemon Go is proof enough of that. One of the biggest disappointments for Nintendo at the moment is 3DS and New 3DS sales. And despite that both Sony and Microsoft would be envious of just how much naked profit Nintendo finds on average with each of it platforms.
The WiiU was their attempt at producing a console with far more expensive tech thsn the buy in price. They weren't going to replicate that again. All Nintendo reslly want is their console to sell enough that estsblished first party products each find significant profit. And as long as that continues, they will continue selling tech at marginal loss, but compensate by having games guaranteed to make a profit.
But this is merely subsidised R&D in terms of other things they want to do with the tech they develop. Moreover, with their cash reserves alone, they are more than willing to release two WiiUs if they eventuslly hit on another runaway success like the DS or the Wii.
It's a business model that works because the Switch doesn't need to sell that many units to guarantee naked profit on the console regardless of other things like game sales.
