Nintendo Posts First Annual Loss

[Narradisall]

Originally Posted by drewmg

There are really only 3 mainline Mario games on the Wii, and that's split between two franchises (2D and 3D Mario games). By comparison, there are about, what, 7 COD games on Xbox 360? 3 Halo games... 4 Assassins Creed games... 3 Mass Effect games...

And people rightly make comments about COD etc being overused.

Nintendo could do with putting some effort into fresh IPs. Games like Paper Mario etc do often provide new, unique or improved gameplay but it's a poor showing that Nintendo don't seem to even try to create any fresh IP's, and 3rd party devs are helping much.

I see no fault in pointing out weaknesses, even in brands I like(ed). Agreeing with everything they do, even when it is potentially causing them problems just means you're expediting the failing of a company you claim to support.

The Wii was a runaway success, but I do not see the WiiU repeating it, or even coming close, then if they don't have a solid library, or other things to fall back on they could find themselves in a weaker position, or in real trouble (although I don't forsee that for a long time giving their years of success).

[drewmg]

Oh, trust me, I'm the first to recognize Nintendo's faults. In fact, I really haven't enjoyed the direction they've taken their company in the past 5 years. Motion control is largely bullshit, and I've been more or less run off of Nintendo-centric sites for holding to that belief. The Wii *was* largely a fad for a lot of people, and the third party support situation is a joke.

I was just more responding to the (seemingly common) belief that there's nothing worth playing on Wii. I've loved my Wii. My favorite games this gen were on Wii.

[Narradisall]

For me it's just the personal preference, I prefer to enjoy exploring new worlds and characters, and the Wii seemed to have less of than the the other 2 platforms. Granted the teats of some of this gens IPs are drying up, but thats why I am hopeful next gen we will see a new batch of IP's as well.

[bean]

Originally Posted by Gorvi

The thing is, they’re taking a loss on hardware with the 3DS, are they making that up in software?

How is that possible? The 3DS like the other Nintendo hardware used 5 year-old technology at launch. It literally looks on par with the PSP that came out 6 years before it and they were charging $250 for the POS at launch. I can't imagine those things cost more than $100 to make. They've gone down to $170, but that's still robbery IMO.

I think they’re going to struggle with the Wii U though, it just doesn’t look like it’ll have the same appeal as the Wii. Not even close. I could be wrong, though, I’ve certainly been very wrong before.

Well the Wii sold as a trend. People who don't normally game bought them and showed them off as party games to friends who then bought them and then eventually most of them gathered dust (at least if you look at the attachment rate - how many games sold per system sold). The poor online offering didn't help either.

I agree that the new controller doesn't look like it will trend like the Wii did. I think people are wary of that as a gimmick too. However, I think people would like an HD console that can play Nintendo games. If it is actually being sold on it's merits, then what will sell it (or not sell it) is price and competition. Also, I didn't think the Wii would trend either, so it's possible this controller could get a lot of positive attention too.

[TheFlyingOrc]

Originally Posted by bean

How is that possible? The 3DS like the other Nintendo hardware used 5 year-old technology at launch. It literally looks on par with the PSP that came out 6 years before it and they were charging $250 for the POS at launch. I can't imagine those things cost more than $100 to make. They've gone down to $170, but that's still robbery IMO.

What I've seen definitely looks a good bit better than the PSP.

Well the Wii sold as a trend. People who don't normally game bought them and showed them off as party games to friends who then bought them and then eventually most of them gathered dust (at least if you look at the attachment rate - how many games sold per system sold). The poor online offering didn't help either.

Is this just a thing you do now? "Bean posts common knowledge information as if its relavatory"? Should we have a site feature?

Furthermore, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but the Wii's attach rate wasn't that bad, and the last time I checked (some 18 months-2 years ago, admittedly) its attach rate was better than the one on the PS3, though far behind the 360 (the 360s attach rate is legendary)

[Narradisall]

The PS3 must have picked up a lot though in the last 2 years. The PS3 took a good couple of years to get a decent library backing it.

[bean]

3DS images on the left.



The maximum resolution for the 3DS is slightly below that of the IPhone and the PSP, but not by much.

PSP - 480x272
iPhone 3GS or greater - 480x320
3DS top screen - 400x240
3DS lower screen - 320x240

However, despite having slightly lower maximum resolution than the PSP or the IPhone, the 3DS has more than twice as fast a fillrate so it can get better FPS at this low resolution.

Source

So it's slightly lower resolution than the PSP with a very solid framerate. You basically get a portable with an image about as good as the original Xbox and that's not bad, but it's also not at all cutting edge. When you compare that to the PS Vita that has literally more than double the resolution (more if you do the math for the pixel count) at 960 x 544, then it looks like crap. Plus, the Vita is $250. That's only $80 more than the 3DS for a state-of-the-art portable with twice the resolution.

I don't know how anyone can argue that the 3DS is being sold at a loss when it's Nintendo's usual MO of selling hardware 5 years behind the tech cycle so they can make it cheap.

[Gorvi]

bean, I'm not arguing with you about the hardware (I don't own one myself), but I've seen it said in numerous articles this week that they're selling the 3DS at a loss.

According to Joystiq:

The 3DS was actually dropped below cost in the 2011 price cut, the financial report reveals.

[bean]

@Gorvi - Thanks. I still wonder how that's possible, but I traced this back to the Nintendo PDF and you're right that Nintendo is saying they are selling the 3DS at a loss to their investors.

[Chris_D]

I imagine if the exchange rate was more like 120 yen to the dollar instead of 80 then Nintendo would definitely be making a profit, outside of Japan at least.