Nintendo Profits Nosedive

[Danpascooch]

74%? That's an insanely massive nosedive.

It's about damn time, they deserve this provided it doesn't put them out of business. They decided to cash out their loyal fan base for a quick large payoff, in favor of a very unstable user base that jumps ship as soon as the next fad comes along, remember when Myspace was successful? They had a very profitable but unstable user base too. Now the Kinect and Move are the "new thing" and Microsoft (mostly) is enjoying that payoff, luckily they didn't kill their normal user base to do it (since it's just an addon), so hopefully they'll still be stable.

 

[Danpascooch]

Not really surprised. Not that I think the Wii is a bad system, but that it has practically saturated the marked with LOTS of Wii's. So now it has to do something different if it want's to continue to make a profit.

Yep, saturation would be my guess as well.

4 years of powerful sales for both consoles.
If it isn't saturation, I'll eat my hat.

It isn't saturation. Eat your hat now.

The problem isn't saturation, although I am sure many would like to believe that it is. I mean, the PS2 sold 147 million in about a decade....I think that goes to show that Wii still has a while to go before it reaches oversaturation. No, the problem is that Nintendo isn't continuing the Revolution they promised and providing compelling Wii software. Instead, they have been sleeping on their laurels and producing games that might as well have been on the GameCube.

The current "retro" phase is allowing them to get by. But in order for the Wii to pick up momentum again, they will have to continue the Revolution and push the potential that motion controls have. While Skyward Sword is a good sign, they will have to do more then that to pick up the pace.

Also, let's not forget that in spite of the current decreasing momentum, the Wii was still the best selling home console last year. So the comments like "who would buy a Wii now that PS3/360 have motion controls" are funny, to say the least.

I think it's that they chose a very unstable user base. Anyone who went out and grabbed a Wii impulsively because it looked cool in commercials (see: Most Wii users) are the same people who are now grabbing a Kinect impulsively and leaving it behind, or are just leaving it behind for something else. It was bound to happen, once the new cool thing comes out, their unstable user base moves on.

It definitely helped that the Wii's quality titles are so far and few inbetween, it just made it easier to look at your Wii two months after you buy it and say "Man, I'm sick of this thing"

 

[Bigsmith]

Oh geez... I've been hearing people say they won't buy the 3DS, or at least not right away, so things look bad for Nintendo...

I have also heard these unsettling phrases, as much as it would be interseting to see nintendo crash and burn... i also don't want it to die... I like Mario.

I'm tempted to trade in my dslight for the 3DS... as well as most of my ds and ps2 games.

But I may also wait for it to come down in price..

and when I get a job...

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

COMPLETE...MARKET...SATURATION...

 

[Tom Phoenix]

Not really surprised. Not that I think the Wii is a bad system, but that it has practically saturated the marked with LOTS of Wii's. So now it has to do something different if it want's to continue to make a profit.

Yep, saturation would be my guess as well.

4 years of powerful sales for both consoles.
If it isn't saturation, I'll eat my hat.

It isn't saturation. Eat your hat now.

The problem isn't saturation, although I am sure many would like to believe that it is. I mean, the PS2 sold 147 million in about a decade....I think that goes to show that Wii still has a while to go before it reaches oversaturation. No, the problem is that Nintendo isn't continuing the Revolution they promised and providing compelling Wii software. Instead, they have been sleeping on their laurels and producing games that might as well have been on the GameCube.

The current "retro" phase is allowing them to get by. But in order for the Wii to pick up momentum again, they will have to continue the Revolution and push the potential that motion controls have. While Skyward Sword is a good sign, they will have to do more then that to pick up the pace.

Also, let's not forget that in spite of the current decreasing momentum, the Wii was still the best selling home console last year. So the comments like "who would buy a Wii now that PS3/360 have motion controls" are funny, to say the least.

I think it's that they chose a very unstable user base. Anyone who went out and grabbed a Wii impulsively because it looked cool in commercials (see: Most Wii users) are the same people who are now grabbing a Kinect impulsively and leaving it behind, or are just leaving it behind for something else. It was bound to happen, once the new cool thing comes out, their unstable user base moves on.

It definitely helped that the Wii's quality titles are so far and few inbetween, it just made it easier to look at your Wii two months after you buy it and say "Man, I'm sick of this thing"

Except people didn't buy a Wii beacuse the Wii looked cool. They bought the Wii in order to play games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit; games that touched upon the potential that motion controls provided. But instead of continuing on developing that potential, Nintendo just sat back and started producing games that might as well have been developed for the GameCube. There is a reason why the GameCube didn't sell well; it provided nothing that the consumer could not experience elsewhere. When people bought a Wii, they bought it in order to play Wii games, not GameCube games. And yet, Nintendo has been developing "GameCube" games...is it any wonder that Wii momentum has been falling?

This has nothing to do with whether or not the Wii user base is "stable". Software sells hardware. If people do not have enough compelling reasons to buy a Wii, then they will not buy a Wii. Quite frankly, it is amazing that Wii Sports and Wii Fit were able to carry the momentum by themselves for so long. This news just goes to show that they are incapable of doing so any more and that Nintendo will have to pick up the pace if they ever want to see Wii momentum reinvigorated.

Of course, having strong third party support would have helped soften the effects of the decreasing momentum somewhat. But considering that most third parties treat the Wii customer base like retards, solely employ third and fourth string development teams to develop for the console and act all suprised when they don't sell millions, I think it is preety clear Nintendo will have to rely completely on themselves to get anywhere.

EDIT: You are right about Kinect, though. As I said, software sells hardware and Kinect currently provides absolutely nothing that the Wii didn't already do and do better (unsuprisingly, this is why most Wii "equivalents" still sell better). So if anything is going to nosedive in these months, it is going to be Kinect sales.

 

[Corpse XxX]

I've always had the feeling that Nintendo consoles, the handheld and Wii, is something that one would get tired of quite quick.. Mostly for casual gamers who's attention span for gaming don't really last..

And now that Sony and Microsoft also have motion sensors, the appeal for Nintendo products has fallen drastically i believe..

Your comment about the DS couldn't have been more wrong. One of my favorite games is STALKER, which is probably the most brutal first person shooter to have been released this century, and at the same time I have probably spent more time playing DS than I have spent time playing PC. Just because it appeals to casual gamers, doesn't mean it doesn't appeal to the more hardcore fellows as well.

That very well might be, that post was written purely on prejudice on my part.. Not a stated fact..

Never tried Stalker, though it looks very good..

i've almost stopped buying new games, cause no matter what i purchase, i always end back up playing TF2

 

[timeadept]

Not surprised in the slightest; it was a runaway bestseller a few years back, and now it can't sustain itself, whilst the PS3 and XBox360 snap doggedly behind.

A sprinter will never beat a distance runner.

That would depend on the type of race you are running.

 

[timeadept]

*double*

 

[Therumancer]

Honestly an affordable hardcore gaming console without the motion control garbage would be welcome. Games like "eternal darkness" and the like have been begging for sequels.

This is the problem. Nintendo has shown in the past decade and a half that without some sort of shitty gimmick to set their systems apart they simply are unable to compete any longer. N64 was a failure and the Gaemcube was pretty horrible too. It wasn't until they started adding on gimmicks like two screens and touch screen and motion controls did anyone give two shits about their consoles again and the 3DS proves they still feel that they need a gimmick to fall back on rather than standing on the actual quality of their games.

I have a feeling that if Nintendo had to actually compete without having a bad gimmick to hide behind people would far less willing to keep buying the same six or seven titles they regurgitate over and over. Present day Nintendo without gimmicks is the Sega of 10 years ago and we saw how that ended. Simply put I doubt we will ever see another Nintendo console that is just a pure and simple gaming console for people who want to play games and not flail around or stare at two screens. They tried those waters twice already and both times they failed.

Well, actually I think the double screen thing for the DS was a good idea, the problem was that few game developers took full advantage of it. The games that did like "The World Ends With You" remain some of my favorite games of all time. I put the fault there on the developers rather than Nintendo.

Otherwise I agree with you, The Wii was a gimmick product aimed at a casual audience, it got a fad following, but the kind of audience it courted is fickle so I doubt they will do well by continueing along that path, especially seeing as it totally failed to be anything but a gimmick for casual players given that every attempt to develop products for core gamers failed pretty solidly.

 

[Buccura]

Well, hard to make a profit on something when everyone and their mother (literally) already have it.

 

[thedeathscythe]

That's mostly because everyone has one.

What he said.

At this point, anyone who wants a DS/Wii owns one. Or knows somebody who owns one.

Hell, I own* two DS', the original and a lite, and I'd probably own a DSi if a 3DS wasn't coming out so soon. In fact, most people probably share my mentality. I do not however own a Wii, but pretty much everyone does. I just don't see enough games that I would enjoy playing to make it worth my investment.

 

[Danpascooch]

Not really surprised. Not that I think the Wii is a bad system, but that it has practically saturated the marked with LOTS of Wii's. So now it has to do something different if it want's to continue to make a profit.

Yep, saturation would be my guess as well.

4 years of powerful sales for both consoles.
If it isn't saturation, I'll eat my hat.

It isn't saturation. Eat your hat now.

The problem isn't saturation, although I am sure many would like to believe that it is. I mean, the PS2 sold 147 million in about a decade....I think that goes to show that Wii still has a while to go before it reaches oversaturation. No, the problem is that Nintendo isn't continuing the Revolution they promised and providing compelling Wii software. Instead, they have been sleeping on their laurels and producing games that might as well have been on the GameCube.

The current "retro" phase is allowing them to get by. But in order for the Wii to pick up momentum again, they will have to continue the Revolution and push the potential that motion controls have. While Skyward Sword is a good sign, they will have to do more then that to pick up the pace.

Also, let's not forget that in spite of the current decreasing momentum, the Wii was still the best selling home console last year. So the comments like "who would buy a Wii now that PS3/360 have motion controls" are funny, to say the least.

I think it's that they chose a very unstable user base. Anyone who went out and grabbed a Wii impulsively because it looked cool in commercials (see: Most Wii users) are the same people who are now grabbing a Kinect impulsively and leaving it behind, or are just leaving it behind for something else. It was bound to happen, once the new cool thing comes out, their unstable user base moves on.

It definitely helped that the Wii's quality titles are so far and few inbetween, it just made it easier to look at your Wii two months after you buy it and say "Man, I'm sick of this thing"

Except people didn't buy a Wii beacuse the Wii looked cool. They bought the Wii in order to play games like Wii Sports and Wii Fit; games that touched upon the potential that motion controls provided. But instead of continuing on developing that potential, Nintendo just sat back and started producing games that might as well have been developed for the GameCube. There is a reason why the GameCube didn't sell well; it provided nothing that the consumer could not experience elsewhere. When people bought a Wii, they bought it in order to play Wii games, not GameCube games. And yet, Nintendo has been developing "GameCube" games...is it any wonder that Wii momentum has been falling?

This has nothing to do with whether or not the Wii user base is "stable". Software sells hardware. If people do not have enough compelling reasons to buy a Wii, then they will not buy a Wii. Quite frankly, it is amazing that Wii Sports and Wii Fit were able to carry the momentum by themselves for so long. This news just goes to show that they are incapable of doing so any more and that Nintendo will have to pick up the pace if they ever want to see Wii momentum reinvigorated.

Of course, having strong third party support would have helped soften the effects of the decreasing momentum somewhat. But considering that most third parties treat the Wii customer base like retards, solely employ third and fourth string development teams to develop for the console and act all suprised when they don't sell millions, I think it is preety clear Nintendo will have to rely completely on themselves to get anywhere.

EDIT: You are right about Kinect, though. As I said, software sells hardware and Kinect currently provides absolutely nothing that the Wii didn't already do and do better (unsuprisingly, this is why most Wii "equivalents" still sell better). So if anything is going to nosedive in these months, it is going to be Kinect sales.

I agree completely about the games that are coming out for it, but don't underestimate the instability of the user base.

Think about it, all these rapid fire Wii sales that have been going on for years, I'm pretty confident in saying that the vast majority of them are sold to people who didn't play the N64 and Gamecube, and aren't long time fans of Nintendo. I said most, not all, of course.

Their old main user base was meticulously built over a decade into a stable consumer group that have brand loyalty to Nintendo, it was a user base that they could count on buying their products as long as they maintained acceptable standards. When the Wii came out they alienated their user base by focusing around games like "Wii Sports" and "Wii Fit" which appeal to party hosts and the exercise craze. The fact that this fan base adopted the Wii so rapidly and mindlessly is a testament to their instability. When the next craze comes along, which it is starting to now, they will forget the name Nintendo.