Nintendo: sign of the times

Satoru Iwata, President of Nintendo co, Ltd.

Today Nintendo reported its first operating loss in 30 years, a loss of $530 million. Nintendo sold 13.51 million 3DS units, 9.84 million Wii's and 5.1 million DS family units (nintendo DS, DSI & DSI XL). Nintendo predicts that the next financial year, they will be back in the black with a net profit of $245 million, this is due the 3DS will no longer be sold below cost and the upcoming launch of the Wii U.

We see from these earnings, the impact of smartphones and tablets. The economy is also a compunding factor where gamers, especially casual gamers (Nintendo's target market) don't want to spend $30-$50 on games. When games on their smartphone or tablet provides a similar of in some cases a better experience than the hand held gaming system at a fraction of the price ($0.99 for angry birds, $14.99 for infinity blade, etc).

Though Nintendo is predicting and profit of $245 million, next financial year. I am less enthusiastic, the Wii U has no hype and the upcoming launch could be more of a fizzle rather than a pop. while sales of the 3DS are booming in japan and in the rest of the world, Sony is not going take this lying down and we can expect a price cut for the psvita.

The Wii U is not going to be an answer to Nintendo's prayers, even with a killer launch titles the hardware of the Wii U holds it back. The Wii U is more in line with current generation hardware than next generation hardware which we are eagerly anticipating for the next generation of Xbox and PS3. While Nintendo has never really been on the cutting edge of hardware the Wii U is supposed to have 3 times the performance of the PS3, we have to wait and see if developers are willing to produce good games for the Wii U and utilise its hardware.

I want Nintendo to continue as a company who produces great products, games like pokemon, mario and zelda shaped my childhood and still continues on now. For nintendo's sake I hope the nostalgia brings back older gamers who have the cash to put Nintendo back in the position which they held only a couple of years ago and also to save us from the apple dominated future.

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