Nintendo Nintendo lowers forecast from ¥55B profit to ¥25B loss

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It is extremely unusual for Nintendo to expect losses. I expect that the 3DS will exceed expectations, but they'll be lucky if the Wii U meets them. It will be interesting to see how they act in the next few years in regards to the Wii U.

 

I heard one gaming show put it best with Nintendo's problem, and I can't remember where it was, don't quote me:

"Microsoft and Sony when making new consoles approach the gaming companies and are: 'We need your input on how to make this work for games.' While Nintendo is: 'This is our console, this is how you make games on it.' Which is two majorly different things."

Nintendo does have some fantastic company games. Legend of Zelda, though it's beyond my tastes right now, Mario, Mario Party though I've heard a ton of complaints about the last game. *too luck based* Metroid though I heard that's ending at some point, Super Smash Brothers. That's all well and good, but there's two problems:

First, none of these games have been made yet. Yes, Mario games have been shown on the U, nothing else, though there has been shown some promise. Again, Super Smash Brothers and Legend of Zelda. I don't see anyone rushing out to buy a Wii U until these games come out if not even later if they're like me: Still on the fence about getting it and paying 200 dollars for a paperweight which my Wii turned out to be in the end. That and a Gamecube as my interest faded fast for the Wii games when I constantly saw "Carnival Fun" and "Skeetball". Being fair, it had some games that I missed, Xenoblade being one, and I still regret not getting.

Second, a lot of third party companies, ie: Ubisoft, Square and several others, haven't recently have felt the need to stay with Nintendo and/or even approach with the offer of making exclusive games. While Sony and MS take initiative and offer incentives and work with developers, who in return give them exclusives. (Heavy Rain and The Last of Us are two games alone I tell people are worth getting a PS3 for.) While MS with Halo and several other exclusives can hold their own, Nintendo might offer the incentives, but they also don't work with the developers. I don't know if it's arrogance, or them not being able to, or something else, but I rarely see an exclusive that's partially owned by Nintendo, though there are spectacular ones, granted when they come out. It's not enough in my opinion to hold the Wii U afloat.

I wonder if this will change over time or Nintendo will realize what's going on.

 

I'm curious how true the claim that Nintendo expects every developer to bend over backwards for them is. While I'm sure there's at least some truth to it, after all, they're still sticking with PowerPC architecture, while Sony and Microsoft have switched to the x86 architecture due to it being more developer friendly (though it helps that Sony using a proprietary architecture bit them in the ass with the Cell processor), the 3DS uses the ARM architecture, which is apparently really easy to build on. Not to mention that they aren't following the same general power level of their competitors, which, on top of the different architecture, makes porting games to the Wii U a costly process.

Hell, the 3DS puts that claim into question considering that it has excellent third party support, which makes sense as the 3DS is the best selling gaming device on the market. Different developers are going to have different opinions and experiences working on certain devices, so it stands to reason that, while one developer doesn't like the Wii U for development purposes, another could have a completely different experience.

I feel that a lot of people like to blame just one of the Wii U's issues. Its too hard to develop for, the market thinks its a Wii add-on, its not as powerful as its competitors, mobile gaming is taking the casual market (this one confuses me, though). There's probably more to it than any one individual issue.

 

Well said. And I don't think this loss is as devastating as it sounds, either. From what I understand, Nintendo is more honest and up-front about sales reports, so maybe what we're seeing is par for the course and the others don't admit it.

 

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Par for the course is a bit of a strong word, there aren't really enough stats to make anything reliable with regards to a 'trend'
However, I've been told repeatedly that the Wii U is basically doing as well as the 360 did.
The issue really is that the PS4 and XB1 did as well as they did right off the bat, and the Wii did as ell as it did last gen, which makes the Wii U's sales look company crushingly bad. Though in a way that DOES make them worse. The immediate success of the PS4 and XB1 will encourage support for the systems, while the Wii U's mediocre pace will dissuade people from developing for it. So the bar has been raised, I think.
That said, one of the Wii U's disadvantages is also an advantage: lower processing power means developing is cheaper. This has already apparently attracted a TONNE of indie devs... too bad Nintendo isn't working that angle, even though Sony and Microsoft are.

Nintendo's biggest problem will never be what they make, it will be their ego.

 

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