34 replies to this topic

[Gregory DG]

Yikes, looks like their profits are down 1/3 from last year. Is this the beginning of the end of Nintendo being a hardware company?

Slumping GameCube Cuts Into Nintendo Profit

[maibock]

complacency begets animosity

[Ze_ro]

Bah, stop hyping up stuff like this. They're still making tons of profit. Nintendo will still be around for quite a while.

And while we're talking about financial issues... I'd like to point out that Sega has made a profit since leaving the console business. Glad to see them doing without all these retarded mergers and such.

--Zero

[Mikau]

Nintendo? In trouble? They've got money in the bank. They're fine. As long as they keep their profit margins the way they have, everything will be fine.

[Gregory DG]

Mikau said:

Nintendo? In trouble? They've got money in the bank. They're fine. As long as they keep their profit margins the way they have, everything will be fine.

Yup. That's what they said about Atari in 1982... As Maibock said, complacency is a dangerous thing.

[MacGurl]

Sorry, but once someone puts out a handheld that will actually compete with the GB, Nintendo might want to start worrying. Sure they have money in the bank..but GC sales are going down, retailers are clearing out their stock to stop carrying them, if anything happens to the GB, it won't look good. Give it a few years.

[Gregory DG]

MacGurl said:

Sorry, but once someone puts out a handheld that will actually compete with the GB, Nintendo might want to start worrying. Sure they have money in the bank..but GC sales are going down, retailers are clearing out their stock to stop carrying them, if anything happens to the GB, it won't look good.  Give it a few years.

I'm not saying that Nintendo's fall will happen tomorrow or even happen at all. Only that this might be an indicator of the final days. You make a good point about the GameCube's failure.

BTW, Sony's announcement of it's portable PS1 could put a crimp in Nintendo's handheld dominance.

Tick tick tick...

[Mendon]

Was over to EB last week and talked to the manager for awhile. He also said Nintendo was hurting, that everything was getting cleared out and sales in his store were way low. I asked him if the GC was doing so bad, why were a lot of the 3rd parties still making GC versions of their games and some, like Sega, are even making exclusives for the GC? He just shrugged his shoulders and said I don't know, I just know I don't sell much GC.

On Sega, he said they were fed up with Xbox and would not be releasing any more Xbox exclusives as they took a real beating on Shenmue and Panzer. First time I'd heard that.

I enjoy my GC and don't feel it was a waste of money at all.

Mendon

[chrisbid]

less profit is by no means a Loss,

[sdstuff64]

Sure the big N will still be around but the only thing that is really keeping them going is the GBA.And they can't depend of it forever...

[Brad2600]

I wouldn't say that it's over for Nintendo just yet.

If they really stick with their guns, they can still hold back the XBOX and make some profit.

[PuddWakkr]

Nintendo still has over a year to rake in the handheld $$$.
http://au.playstatio.../news/psp.jhtml

How they take competition in the handheld market will be interesting.

[AtariDude]

Hmmm...The New Atari is talking to Nintendo about a merger where they become their partner. History is repeating itself

Just kidding by the way but you never know. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction!

[shep]

Sony made that annoucement just for hype, and are no where near final plans, thats like Microsoft making an official press release that says, in a nutshell, "...Sometime before the year 3000, we will release a handheld that can handle polygons..."

[Starscream]

Well, there's 2 things learned over the years about video games:

1. Never trust what a video game store salesman tells you. Maybe a store in one particular area may not sell many GC's, but another a few miles down the road may sell more than anything else. Plus, their info 9 times outta 10 is based on rumors.

2. Nintendo always finds a way to stay strong. Remember when the N64 really started hurting in sales? Along came Pokemon. Not only helped overall profits but boosted N64 sales big time.

Seems the new angle for them is the linking of the GC and GBA games. Think about it, if you can be convinced to buy 2 games(1 for each system) to unlock a feature or character, bonus game, etc you're gonna drop $80 at least to do it. Much better than 1 $50 game right? Sucks to be the consumer but you still do end up with 2 games for $40 each on average.

Around here I can pretty much get any game for any of the current 3 for $20 or under brand new if I wait about 2 months tops. Games for all 3 are being cleared out in a way I have never seen. Hell, this is the 1st time that we've seen 3 price drops in 2 years. Sony just announced that they expect PS2 sales to drop 20%. I think we all may be too old school in our thinking - the game market has just simply changed.

[Mendon]

I tell you, I just watched that E3 wrap up video that Nintendo made and talk about impressed!!!! Final Fantasy, Star War's, Pac Man.... those games look INCREDIBLE!!!

Maybe the GC didn't have the best of games during its first year of release, but I think things began to fall into place last year with releases of Starfox and Mario and its been getting better and better ever since.

If that E3 video is a taste of meals to come, I am HUNGRY!!!!!

Mendon

[PuddWakkr]

shep said:

like Microsoft making an official press release that says, in a nutshell, "...Sometime before the year 3000, we will release a handheld that can handle polygons..."

Sweet count me in. Can I perorder it now. I'm gonna skip the Sony handgeld and wait for the MS polygon crunching monster. Will it be the same size as their home console?

[Buyatari]

I'd like to see Nintendo go down for one reason and one reason only.

They are soo tight with their product. 1st party Nintendo prototypes just never surface. If it ever happens while I'm alive I'll be fighting Curt Vendel for elbow room in the dumpsters.

Adam

[Nintendo Penguin]

I don't think the CUbe has been unprofitable... they just don't have the market share they would like.

MacGurl has it right.... they have 100% of the handheld market.... they will be fine.

[Ze_ro]

Buyatari said:

I'd like to see Nintendo go down for one reason and one reason only.

They are soo tight with their product. 1st party Nintendo prototypes just never surface.

You want them to go out of business so that you can get more prototypes? That seems rather selfish

I'd rather see Nintendo succeed because they're the only real video game company left still making consoles. Sony and Microsoft are just "all-in-one" companies that are trying to monopolize the universe. They already booted Sega out, so hopefully Nintendo can hold their ground.

I don't see why everyone is so convinced that Nintendo is going to collapse when this PSP comes out. We hardly know anything about it, and it's not coming out for years. Nintendo already has such a huge market share on portables that even when this thing comes out, it'll probably have to struggle to get it's share. Not only does pretty much ever gamer already have a GBA, but I doubt many people are holding out until they see the PSP. Besides, who knows what Nintendo has cooking to compete against this thing (Nintendo is a smart company, they must have some competition in the works)... perhaps they'll release a portable Gamecube around the same time and wipe the floor with Sony.

--Zero

[VidGameKing]

a portible GC would be quite practical considering the fact that the GC uses those small discs it would just be a matter of shinking the rest of the hardware down.and as for nintedo being the last "true" dedicated console, I've never actually seen it like that, but hey! your right, they are a dedicatd console, not a PC in the living room!

[joeybastard]

I'm actually shocked that Nintendo is having the troubles it has. IMHO, the Gamecube is overall far superior to the other systems. They may have better graphics, more games, whatever - but the GC as a whole is better. I like the controllers, I LOVE the game library, I like the GBA link, etc. Obviously I'm in the minority on this.

As for the GBA, I think it's a great handheld and outside of a larger, better lit screen, I don't really care if it ever gets more advanced. In a portable I'm looking for some quick fun to pass the time on the train to work. 3D super "deep" games don't interest me on a portable. That stuff is for the console. I also don't think Sony will have that PSP out for at least 2 years, it will be half as powerful as they claim and the first 500K will be severly defective.

Before the cries of "Nintendo Fanboy", please realize I like all videogames and don't particularly care who makes them.

[AtariDude]

I think the problem with the gamecube is that it really looks too much like a toy and has drawn away adults from it. Also until recently the titles have been geared too much towards children further alienating adults.

The PS and Xbox know that they need to sell to adults who have more spending money than kids who have to pester their parents to get them to buy games for them.

[Foxy Cleopatra]

joeybastard said:

As for the GBA, I think it's a great handheld and outside of a larger, better lit screen, I don't really care if it ever gets more advanced.  In a portable I'm looking for some quick fun to pass the time on the train to work.  3D super "deep" games don't interest me on a portable.  That stuff is for the console.  I also don't think Sony will have that PSP out for at least 2 years, it will be half as powerful as they claim and the first 500K will be severly defective.  

I also think the GBA is a great handheld, well the SP anyway. Although I really enjoy the "3D super "deep" games" sometimes you just need to take a break and go backwards, so to speak.

And your last sentence, made me smile. (I would have said laugh, but I didn't want you to think I was laughing at you. )

As for the PSP, it's made by Sony, Kutaragi-san said: "This is THE 'Walkman' of the 21st century", bet you it looks like a Discman.

[King Atari]

I bet Nintendo comes up with some competition. They wouldn't take a threat like that lying down, if it happens, that is.