Since nintendo announced that they sold less units of the wii u than expected, sheckled journalists and fanboys of both opposing sides have been coming at full force to announce nintendo's doom.

But nintendo ain't going anywhere, it was a clear screw-up of their marketing and they said that they are looking to change that, even if they have to lose some 3rd party developers, they're not going to sega their way out of the business (yes, I just used sega as a verb), it seems they would rather commit sudoku than become the 3rd party.

When you compare the sales of the newly released ps4 and xbox one, many of those units were sold due to hype alone, both their marketing campaigns were great, thus reeling in many of the existing fans to buy their new systems.
Since both systems are almost exactly the same, all they have are a few exclusives to grab attention, and with games becoming way more expensive to develop now, there's not going to be many grand exclusives this gen, which is why sony has to try and keep their 2nd parties with them.

That leaves nintendo to struggle and find a way to market to a different core market, since the FPS dudebro market are churning for the latest shiny graphics.

I apologise for the bad grammar, but that's all I have to say for now

here's some more info
http://www.siliconera.com/2014/01/18/nintendo-misread-market-considering-new-business-structure/

"commit sudoku"... Really? -_-

I think Nintendo has a hard fight ahead. Considering the clamour about the sheer horsepower of the PS4 and Xbone, their market strategy of "it not the size, but what you do with it that counts" is getting bad rep.

There will always be a market for Nintendo joy, but we will have to see if the market is large enough to keep the company afloat.

The market may keep the company afloat in the gaming department. The question is whether or not they'll be able to stay in the console manufacturing market, outside of their handhelds.

Let's put this into perspective. Nintendo said they would ship 9 million WiiUs for the year period of March 2013 to March 2014.

They have now dropped that number to 2.8 million, and possibly might not even make that. On top of that, the 3DS also had its forecast lowered. This is important to remember too.

SupaPhly said ...


When you compare the sales of the newly released ps4 and xbox one, many of those units were sold due to hype alone, both their marketing campaigns were great, thus reeling in many of the existing fans to buy their new systems.

So much wrong with this statement I do not even know where to begin. Firstly, what proof do you have that good marketing magically helped both the X1 and PS4 achieve sales records that make the PS2 and Wii look like they both sold slowly?
You dont. Additionally, if December sales in the US are an indication, the sales for the X1 and PS4 are more a sign of people wanting to jump onto new consoles. Sales of the PS3 and 360 were actually far far weaker than most had anticipated.



Regardless, Nintendo has a lot of work to do for the WiiU. They are currently between a rock and a hard space, and I fully expect them to just go all out for 2014. If the WiiU does not have its fortunes changes for the better in 2014, 2015 wont mean anything for the console.

^it was more of an assumption than a claim :/
but would there be proof otherwise?

but like I said before, they're not going anywhere, they still got the hidden stash under the bedsheets incase of emergency... or they just could just carry on in third place and hope the games and hardware get more attention

the 3ds is being forecast low?
not anytime soon buddy
it's not like any hardware is going anywhere soon
It's not like we are shareholders anyway, predictions could turn the other way

SupaPhly said ...

^it was more of an assumption than a claim :/
but would there be proof otherwise?

Fair enough, though I still disagree.

the 3ds is being forecast low?
not anytime soon buddy

http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/17/nintendo-sales-forecast-wii-u/

Nintendo now expects to sell 13.5 million 3D handhelds, down from 18 million

No, I think you are clearly wrong.

^I... forgot about that

SupaPhly said ...

^I... forgot about that

np, that info seems to have been glossed over due to the wiiu news.

small profit, huge cash reserve and zero debt ... how I wish the company I work at was in the position Nintendo is in.

I love my Wii U, finally unwrapped Mario 3D World this weekend, but Ninty have an uphill battle ahead. There are no real 3rd party games to get excited about on the Wii U, at least none that I have seen. They need to get the sales of their 1st party stuff up as Mario didn't sell that well at all on launch if I remember correctly. Ninty will survive , but whether they can get enough people to buy their home consoles will be a big determining factor in, in what form they will survive.

Release Gamecube 2, reduce the gimmicks on the console and focus on the strength of their software brands. CREATE NEW FIRST PARTY IP's! Listen to your core users in terms of functionality and Nintendo mustn't be scared to throw some decent power into the console in order to grab some 3rd party development attention and even cross platfrom games from the other next gen consoles (I mean Gamecube was pretty impressive for its time!).

Also incentivise connectivity between Gamecube 2 and Wii U in order validate the purchase of a WiiU or even its gaming pad and for Nintendo to show support to all the Nintendo fans that supported their WiiU.

Stop trying to hit the masses Nintendo (like you did with the wii) - They are all cellphone / facebook / tablet gaming now anyway and focus on the clients that will support you and possibly promote your brand for you!

Nintendo go down? LOL Last I heard they still had like $7.9 billion in reserves. They could[censored] up this entire generation hand held and console and they would still be fine.

Nintendo's biggest problem this generation was trying to compete with PS4 and XB1 for the "gamer" market. I remember the Wii was marketed as hell to every family you could find, wii U not so much.

Wii U's marketing has been pretty horrible overall.

-----------

That being said this year it has a line up of amazing games coming to it, games you are not going find on PC, PS4 or XB1. They will also be video games, If it is nintendo you know you are going to get a video game.

Not a cinematic experience, not some overly dramatic [censored] like the last of us, or games that might as well just automate the plateforming for you. You will get good old fun to play video games.

Scottie said ...

small profit, huge cash reserve and zero debt ... how I wish the company I work at was in the position Nintendo is in.

Nintendo posted a net loss of R2.6 Billion and an operating loss of R3.6 Billion (i think i coverted these correctly).
Not only did their forecast for the WiiU go down, so did the 3DS. The 3DS is selling slower than the DS. It has a lower attach rate than the DS. The 3DS is not the cash magnet everyone thinks it is. The current financial report from Nintendo does not showcase a loss that is brought about by the WiiU only... its brought about partly by the 3DS too failing to reach the margins they expected it too.

Huge cash reserves does not mean a huge tangible money allocation. Cash reserves also refer to the value of property, manufacturing plants, investments, trademark values.

If we take into account that Nintendo is effectively losing money on the WiiU (they were not making a profit off hardware alone at its original price), and that software investment is seeing little gains at all (W101, Sonic etc all pretty much being disasters sales wise), the push for more marketing and even development costs, what you have is a company that is spending a lot of money. The 3DS cannot offset this forever. In fact, 2014 does not even look as strong a year for the 3DS as 2013 did. Keep in mind, 3DS sales in Japan for 2013 were actually lower than in 2012, which makes the situation for the WiiU even worse.


What you have is a company that is barely in a 'safe' position. Yes, Nintendo are not going to sink anytime soon. But they face a shrinking handheld market. They face a console market that is vastly different to what they imagined it would be like in the Wii years.

They have an uphill battle, but things need to turn around. The question is whether their software can do that. MK8 is really their ace for the console. Smash being on the 3DS can potentially damage WiiU sales of the game so betting on that is not a done deal (but you never know). Nothing else is really mainstream. If MK and Smash can not elevate sales for a long term, then I doubt anything else will.

It is going to be an interesting year for Nintendo (MS and Sony too).

according to their last financial statement their assets were $15.4 Billion including over $5 Billion in cash and $4.5 billion in short term investments. My point was there are many many companies that would dream of being in Nintendo's position - they have the time and the money to fix things, most companies don't have either.

For me personally the biggest fault with Nintendo is software based.

The Nintendo store works great but their OS is horrible. One of the primary reasons I hacked my Wii was to use a [censored] interface even though I was playing origional games.

I just want point out as well that this was a company that adapted from Majhong and Playing cards into a video game giant. Everyone fucks up, but I think if there will be any company that comes ontop of the changing gaming market it will be Nintendo.

They have been through[censored] before.

Personally I think as technology progresses the definition between handheld gaming and console gaming will fade away. Just have one unit you can take on the road with you, and one when you get home that can hook up to your big screen and give you all the functionality of a proper console.

First person who really succeeds in doing that to me wins.

@Woofels I second that. The fact that your profile isn't easily carried between 3DS and WiiU is silly. You have to go to the Nintendo Club website and link the profiles is just ludicrous. Also the fact that purchases cannot carry between Wii U's seems an odd choice. And do not get me started on region locking!

To me Ninty made a mistake in "underpowering" the Wii U to keep costs down. I think that the other next gen consoles have proven that people don't care about cost and will shell out if they believe that the system will be better than the last. I still think that the Wii U has enormous potential, it just seems as if Ninty are the only ones who will realise that potential though.

Doubt the Wii U will go anywhere anytime soon. It's a great system it just doesn't cater to new age gamers. People that only want FPS games, the same stuff they get every 6 months and they just keep buying it.

Nintendo need to implement better online multiplayer and some sort of trophy system, that will get the 'mass' aka idiot gamers to buy their systems lol.

Both Mario Kart and Smash Bros needs to have proper online, if it doesn't then I don't see them doing any better than Super Mario 3D World.

There is no question that the console has great games, Super Mario 3D World, The Wonderful 101, Wind Waker HD Remake and the best version of Rayman Legends. The other thing is how easy 1080p came to Nintendo and the Wii U, I'm still playing recently released games on PS4 that can't go past 720p. So the console definitely has the potential to be great just not 3rd party great, never will be due to the specs being too different to its Rivals.

Their online store needs a revamp in prices, not paying R70+ for Mario or any other VC games, games should be R10 at most.

If the Wii U fails to sell this year with such an amazing line up then there isn't any hope for it and I'd consider gaming pretty much dead and just taken over by the other kind.

Personally I think the 3DS sales forecasts were just exaggerated; the sales for the 3DS are still impressive in my eyes. Nintendo's bad marketing team =/= How Nintendo is actually doing.

Once actual decent games start being released for the Wii U, people will actually care about buying one. So I guess that'll be happening sometime this year?

Edit: Also, ditto Woofels.

Woofels said ...



Personally I think as technology progresses the definition between handheld gaming and console gaming will fade away. Just have one unit you can take on the road with you, and one when you get home that can hook up to your big screen and give you all the functionality of a proper console.

First person who really succeeds in doing that to me wins.

Buy an ipad? Seriously, Apple has been doing this for the lat couple of years I am sure.

That said, your idea is something that seems to be going around a bit. Its not a bad idea, but it faces the problems of being not adequately powerful enough, potentially pricey, and it cuts 2 revenue streams into 1.

Basically, if that were to fail it would hurt Nintendo hard. The only reason they are pretty much ok now is because the 3DS is offsetting a lot of the WiiU damage.

Magius said ...


To me Ninty made a mistake in "underpowering" the Wii U to keep costs down. I think that the other next gen consoles have proven that people don't care about cost and will shell out if they believe that the system will be better than the last. I still think that the Wii U has enormous potential, it just seems as if Ninty are the only ones who will realise that potential though.

Nintendos problem was not underpowering the WiiU to keeps costs down. As the WiiU currently is they could probably shave off another 70 dollars if it were not for the gamepad. The gamepad is what is hurting the WiiUs price.

And I have to disagree with the potential part. I would really like to know what games show off the potential of the WiiU in such a manner where the experience cant be replicated on another console? Besides Nintendoland, I cant think of nay major release of them that could not be played on another console.

The worst part is that not a single one of their 2014 games appear to change this fact. Nintendo are not showing any potential of their hardware. especially in the gamepad department. And that is what is hurting them... ppl are not sold on the overall image of the WiiU.

DarkPrince said ...

Doubt the Wii U will go anywhere anytime soon. It's a great system it just doesn't cater to new age gamers. People that only want FPS games, the same stuff they get every 6 months and they just keep buying it.

Well good on Nintendo for being able to read marketing trends...

Princess Rage said ...

Personally I think the 3DS sales forecasts were just exaggerated; the sales for the 3DS are still impressive in my eyes. Nintendo's bad marketing team =/= How Nintendo is actually doing.

Once actual decent games start being released for the Wii U, people will actually care about buying one. So I guess that'll be happening sometime this year?

Exaggerated? And you just blow that off as nothing? Where do you think part of their operating and net income loss came from? It came from their overestimation of the 3DS. The 18 million is not even an exaggeration, its a rather respectable guess. For the time period in question Nintendo released :
Donkey Kong
Animal Crossing
Mario and Luigi
Pokemon X and Y
Zelda

Japan additionally got MH4 and Puzzles and Dragons Z.

Nintendos software lineup for this period is stronger than it was last year but the 13.5 million figure they are not estimating, is actually lower than the same period for 2012 to 2013.

The sales are still high, but the final figures Nintendo are estimating actually shows a decline/ stagnation of sales for a period that should have seen a rather obvious increase.

I dunno, but saying that the WiiU does not have actual decent games is kind of a slap in the face to the WiiU and Nintendo. The WiiU does have good games and if you think it doesnt then that just means that means Nintendo has had a console on the market for a year with nothing compelling to buy and are somehow believed hey would hit 9 million in sales for a 12 month period?

Sinncross said ...

Buy an ipad? Seriously, Apple has been doing this for the lat couple of years I am sure.

Re-read what I said. I said properly as In full functionality of a console. I want to be able to pull up my friends lists, hook up 4+ controllers and have split screen gaming, friends lists, online store for titles.

Not flooded with iOS crap and some of the games worth playing on them.

Basically once this thing is plugged in I want to use it as I would a PS4 and when I hit the road, it works as a good handheld/tablet for gaming and media.

I did not say this is something that would be coming soon either, but that Imo is where gaming is heading. People want mobility and power, we are greedy lol.