tmcd35 Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 BBC News - Nintendo forecasts loss amid weak Wii U sales Nintendo issues profit warning. Do they have 1 more console left in them? Are they the next Sega? or Will they be bought out/merge with a rival?
LosOjos Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 I think they are in danger of becoming the next Sega and signing a load of licensing deals for their IP. However, looking at their history, I think their general business ethos will practically force them to go all out on their next console in the hope of reviving their dwindling profits. They must have enough capital behind them to fund at least one more console R&D. They really need another Wii/GameBoy level of success to put them back at the top though I think. Their usual strategy has been to take slightly older tech and apply some creative design to make it appealing and affordable, however I'm struggling to think of anything they could do along those lines at this point other than make a version of the Kinect/PSEye that actually works in a normal sized living room... TL;DR - one more shot at the big time then the way of Sega.
sonofsanta Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 They've been down before - N64 and Gamecube - and marked for death by industry watchers. I don't know what their exact situation is right now, but everytime they've been supposedly doomed they've gotten through thanks to the mountain of gold they have from Pokemon. I once heard that Smaug was actually a Gyarados left to guard their cash reserves. I'm not sure they'll ever rescue the Wii U though - it was never going to be as easy a sell as the Wii to that blue ocean market, and they've not got the message across in marketing at all.
CAM Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 They have a money printing machine called the 3DS so I can't see them collapsing. The Wii-U is a mess though and I say that as an owner, it is only good for first party titles and a very select few third party ones. There is no reason for a publisher to develop for the Wii-U when they are competing against the platform owner who is the biggest competition! The system itself is in need of a dire update with the OS being slow and clunky, online features feeling backwards and simple and bizarre restrictions in place (did you know you cannot post ANY social networking details in your MiiVerse profile?). You also cannot charge peripherals like the Gamepad or Pro-Controller with the power off, cannot power USB hard disks with one USB port and digital sales are restricted to consoles so if your Wii-U breaks it's goodbye digital library! The console does seem somewhat backwards! Nintendo will survive, but 2014 is the last key year for the Wii-U. If an OS/hardware revision doesn't come through and the negativity isn't reversed by Smash Bros and MarioKart 7 making the platform take off, I can't see the Wii-U being around long in 2015.
tmcd35 Posted January 17, 2014 Author Posted January 17, 2014 They have a money printing machine called the 3DS so I can't see them collapsing. Is it? Didn't stop a 100bn Yen profit turning into a 35bn Yen loss! (ouch). No doubt they have the financial reserves to get through it, but do they have the products? Smartphones are getting cheaper. All of my nieces and nephews over the age of 8 have smartphones now, none of them play with their 3DS's any more. The one thing they have going for them is their back catalogue. I think they need to look a new ways of leveraging that.
LosOjos Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) TBH, I think they're best cutting their losses on the Wii-U... with the PS4 and XB1 out now and already outselling Wii-U despite the latter being over 12 months old, it would take a miracle to make the console profitable. They're almost exclusively relying on first party titles because third party have finally had enough of their over bearing publishing rules and licensing. In this age of indie games, F2P and micro-transactions (*shudder*), Nintendo's classic model of stringent control over their platform is losing them a lot of favour in the industry. They need a culture change and quick if they're going to continue to produce their own consoles IMO. The one thing they have going for them is their back catalogue. I think they need to look a new ways of leveraging that. This could play perfectly in to their "old tech, low price" routine - re-release the GameBoy (an updated version of course!) and make available digitally their entire first party catalogue of NES, SNES, N64 and GC games, then encourage third party devs to release theirs on the platform too. Hell, I'd pre-order one! So long as the games were no more than £5 each of course (they'd easily be able to make the machine emulate the old consoles, removing any need to reprogram the games - almost 100% profit) Edited January 17, 2014 by LosOjos
CAM Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 Nintendo have been siding up to indie devs recently. The console suffered from serious problems early on when it came to development with translation delays, poor toolkits and a mystery SDK. Nintendo Network was also rushed out the door at the last minute, literally! The tools have improved since then and the development process made easier so developers aren't playing guessing games with the API anymore. It still hurt early uptake though and the physical power of the system cannot be improved without screwing over early adopters. You can get virtual console titles already though via the store.
LosOjos Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 You can get virtual console titles already though via the store. Yeah but there are only a select few and they don't feel very well marketed IMO, they could make a mint if they made their back catalogue available and actively advertised the fact, I reckon that every single person on these forums will have fond memories of at least one Nintendo title...
tmcd35 Posted January 17, 2014 Author Posted January 17, 2014 they could make a mint if they made their back catalogue available and actively advertised the fact, I reckon that every single person on these forums will have fond memories of at least one Nintendo title... What about making their back catalogue available on Playstation Now and/or Steam?
LosOjos Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 What about making their back catalogue available on Playstation Now and/or Steam? There's certainly a huge potential for profit there but I can't see Nintendo doing that, not until they're at their last straw - it's just not the way they work! I think if they do that, we'll know they've gotten as bad as Sega did post Dreamcast - although that culture change I said they needed earlier could take them down this route sooner, who knows...
CAM Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 Imagine Smash Brothers over Steamworks. it'd be at the #1 spot for months if they did a good port!
localzuk Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 That'd be an interesting tie up - Valve and Nintendo. If Nintendo embraced the Steam machines idea!
LosOjos Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 Imagine Smash Brothers over Steamworks. it'd be at the #1 spot for months if they did a good port! That'd be an interesting tie up - Valve and Nintendo. If Nintendo embraced the Steam machines idea! It would be amazing, but Nintendo and Valve are about as far apart as you can get in the gaming world... completely different approaches. Nintendo is all closed platform, sworn secrecy agreements, restrictive publishing and licensing fees. Valve are "all" open (not as much as they make out, but a lot more than most), anything goes and yes, of course you can use our engine/platform/market! If they were to do a tie-in, it would be a huge leap for Nintendo, though it could be insanely profitable for both parties...
featured_spectre Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 What they need to do to revive things...Make a pokemon game with the creatures from all areas, the fighting style of final fantasy, with an open world map like elder scrolls, introduce online battles and bam, they are onto a money maker!
LosOjos Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 What they need to do to revive things...Make a pokemon game with the creatures from all areas, the fighting style of final fantasy, with an open world map like elder scrolls, introduce online battles and bam, they are onto a money maker! Yeah I have to be honest, I haven't been "into" Pokémon since Red/Blue but even I want to play that game!
localzuk Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 What they need to do to revive things...Make a pokemon game with the creatures from all areas, the fighting style of final fantasy, with an open world map like elder scrolls, introduce online battles and bam, they are onto a money maker! I don't think the Wii U could handle an open world like that - too big possibly.
featured_spectre Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 wouldn't need to be Wii U or Wii. Nintendo could release it for other consoles (like Sega did with their games) XB1, PS4, PC, Steambox etc. I personally believe sales would be through the roof for that game.
X-13 Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) the fighting style of final fantasy Which one? Turn based, active time battle, conditional turn based or active dimension battle? Nintendo could release it for other consoles (like Sega did with their games) XB1, PS4, PC, Steambox etc. Yeah... I'd prefer to have more than 2 options for consoles. Edited January 17, 2014 by X-13
3s-gtech Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 It does seem that with the great hardware that the 3DS and Wii U are, they could be both be saved (and bring in the money) if Nintendo actually released some games for them.
LosOjos Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 Yeah... I'd prefer to have more than 2 options for consoles. Why? I'd personally like for consoles to become a thing of the past and for everyone to work on distribution platforms on open hardware (similar to how PC gaming works). Would mean that gaming isn't held back by the weakest common denominator, games should cost less (less waste due to publishing various versions of the same game, plus the cost of porting to each platform), indie devs would have a more level playing field effectively putting paid to the AAA studios churning out franchise after franchise (they'd still do it, but they'd have to at least try to be more innovative when people have the choice to play a wider variety of titles).
tmcd35 Posted January 17, 2014 Author Posted January 17, 2014 It does seem that with the great hardware that the 3DS and Wii U are, they could be both be saved (and bring in the money) if Nintendo actually released some games for them. Nintendo's great downfall IMHO, was letting Microsoft get their hands on RARE, followed by letting Square Enix suck up to Sony. Looking on Wikipedia (fountain of all knowledge) this profit warning is a blip and they do have a fair bit of cash to throw in the right direction. They're a company in need of new IP. A few stratigic purchases I think are in order. A couple of promising up coming indie developers and maybe an old hat IP rich concern like Capcom. Update the Wii-U's GPU and Ram and they are good to go. I often wondered what a Nintendo-Sega tie up might look like? Not sure if it'd be a good match but immagine the leveraging power on that combined back catalogue!
CAM Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 So basically a PC? You can hook controllers up to it and play anything (legitimately or not).
LosOjos Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 (edited) So basically a PC? You can hook controllers up to it and play anything (legitimately or not). Guessing that was a reply to me? Yes, basically a PC but with the difference being that more people go Valve's route of making living room friendly PCs for the non-techs, but nobody has a monopoly on any platform; everyone just focuses on developing games. Yes you would get more services like Origin, Steam etc. popping up but the underlying hardware would be the same. Upgrades would be cheaper and only as frequent as you want (even a £50 GPU can play the latest games, albeit on low settings, the point being you don't have to upgrade to play) and the fact that devs wouldn't be tied in to proprietary SDKs and platforms should open the market up to being more interesting and ultimately make it more competitive. Of course this would work best on a Linux platform (not necessarily SteamOS) otherwise you're back to Microsoft taking a cut of all the hardware sales. I think SteamOS is a good step in this direction, however I do feel it's premature; Valve and indie titles alone are not going to change the market so drastically. This is why I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a AAA studio to make a leap of faith sometime in the next 6 months... As for piracy - that's an entirely different issue that's in no way exclusive to PC and will continue to be a problem, well, forever. Some people pirate because they can't afford to buy new games, some because they won't pay and others because they like the challenge. I honestly believe cutting costs will reduce piracy on all media massively. But, that's another topic... Edited January 17, 2014 by LosOjos
simpsonj Posted January 17, 2014 Posted January 17, 2014 What they need to do to revive things...Make a pokemon game with the creatures from all areas, the fighting style of final fantasy, with an open world map like elder scrolls, introduce online battles and bam, they are onto a money maker! Have you tried Ni Nu Kuni? Highly recommend it as it basically is Pokémon with a better battle system!
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