Remember back a few years ago, when the Wii was the hit toy of the year and the joke about the Nintendo DS was that it prints money? Not so much any more. Nintendo continues to post huge losses. Nintendo posted a net loss of some 70.3 billion yen ($926 million) for the six months to September 30 2011. That's nearly a billion dollars in loss. I'm no math wizard, Nintendo revised its full-year net income down from a 20 billion yen profit to a 20 billion yen loss.
Although softer sales on its systems and software are certainly a factor in Nintendo's sagging profits, the main reason for the loss is thought to be the rising value of the yen itself, which damages profits that come from overseas.
Click the "Read More" tag for details on Nintendo's shaky financial outlook.
For the last six months, Nintendo sold 8.13 million units of 3DS software, while the combined sales for its NDS hardware line (DSL, DSi, DSi XL) were 2.58 million units. Combined software units sold for NDS handhelds hit the 28.99 million mark.
The Wii shipped 3.35 million units for the period, and 36.45 million software units were sold for the system. For the real nitty-gritty breakdown of Nintendo, check out the financial slide below:
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mamajoe
Third party developers dragging their feet on titles was a big reason for the slow sales on the 3ds. Another reason was the harsh reviews, mostly about the lack of games. which unfortunately made developers back off even more. The system has great feaures, like netflix. street pass, nintendo videos, e shop. Coming shortly, you'll be able to shoot your own 3D videos, and have playable demos and Hulu will also be available for subscribers just like netflix. I'm sure Christmas sales for the 3DS will be much improved. Plus lots of titles that should satisfy most players, single player, multiplayer, online whatever you like. The new peripheral should help delvelopers design better games for the 3DS, and it will also make it easier to port games from other consoles. From what I understand most if not all games will be playable without it.
I like my 3DS. I love handheld systems. I can't bring my console along in my back pocket .Last thing I'll say is that if the 3D bothers your eyes just slid the bar down and play in 2D.
kingn8link
Guys.. really? This is not RIP Nintendo. This is RIP to crazy Wii and DS sales. It's been 5+ years, obviously the money made during that period will not be made again until both lines, handheld and console, are updated. Only one of them has.
maccfc
The last Nintendo console I bought was the SNES, I still love first party Nintendo games but I can't justify buying a system for the 5 to 10 good games that come out in their system life spam.
Nintendo should learn from Sega and go software only. How many copies of the next Mario or Metroid would sell on the X360 or the PS3? Gazillions, that's how many.
cooperjs1
Of course they have posted losses. They haven't listened to consumers in 20 years. When the Gamecube was released, Nintendo stated they didn't think that online gaming was gonna take off. They are corporate businessmen. Does Reggie Fils-Aime look like he has ever played a game in his life. Hell no. Sony and Microsoft have taken over the gaming market that Nintendo created with the NES years ago. They build game consoles that gamers play. I love Nintendo, but we all know that if they don't get their act together, they will fall.
Phategod
Nintendo has to learn from there mistakes, they can no longer turn a blind eye to the market and play there way. They have to make a competitive system with out a gimmick to be taken seriously by third parties, because no matter how many PSA's Ken Levine makes, I seriously Doubt he or any other A list developer other then Eiji Aonuma will be making games for the WiiU.
LieutenatnPie
You know, I used to like Nintendo. But they went wrong in several ways.
First of all, they have terrible third-party support. Practically all of the first-party games are mediocre at best, and the third-party games aren't even worth buying. Wow. Motion control. That's nice. It's like mobile gaming, except for $30 instead of $1.
And on top of that, they keep pushing their consoles too early. The Wii U is coming out 1 or 2 years before the competition. The 3DS had a really weak lineup. There's not much that's innovative about the consoles. American audiences are losing interest in 3D, and Nintendo is slowly becoming aware of that. The Wii U has the same gimmick as the 3DS: two screens. It's nothing new. The Wii was innovative in the sense that it had motion control, but now everything does. All consoles, phones, iPods, everything. It's completely normal now. There's a fine line between innovation and a gimmick. Considering the fact that the 3DS has... Well, 3D as it's main selling point, that's just not a good idea. Most people either can't see the 3D, get sick, or didn't know it was there. It easily contributes to over half of the price. I think that if they make a hardware revision, it should be without 3D. Then they can sell it for about $100 and call it good. Hell, I'd probably buy one just for Phoenix Wright vs. Professor Layton. Which is a rare example of what could possibly be a good third-party game.
My final point is that they're gambling too much on the casual market. Yeah, yeah. We get it. Games for people who don't play games. Unfortunately, everyone plays games now. So what did they do? They created a new audience. A much larger one. Which is all fine and dandy at first, but then they get higher standards. The same standards that the other core audience has. So now they can't satisfy hardly anyone. I might buy the 3DS and the Wii U if they both had 1 screen and weren't 3D and had a decent lineup. The the 3DS, it's just remake remake remake reboot sequel remake. They're selling nostalgia. I love Star Fox 64. But I also have Star Fox 64. On my Nintendo 64. I don't need to buy it again. It's just unnecessary. Yeah, it would be fun to try it for about 5 minutes. Then I'd lose interest. They've just lost their old fans in the act of creating new ones, and now their new ones are playing 360. They've completely screwed themselves over.
Honestly, I'm not sure there's anything they can do to fix this. But regardless, people will be disappointed.
imdave
The big selling point of the 3DS is of course the 3D, which I'm not really to enamoured with and apparently a lot of other gamers arent either.
I'm definitely more excited about the Vita.
Tmidiman
Alien#6, that was very good.
Well it seems that Nintendo has fallen into the hubris that is usually only reserved for the gaming media. (that's you IGN)
One can only hope that not only do hey learn from their mistake, but that MS sees the writing on the wall and does not fall into the same hole. Like Elvis and Micheal Jackson, like Monroe and Winehouse, greatness seems to not see history repeating.
And their loyal fans do the same. EA never makes madden better, because people keep buying into its mediocraty. So too some fans of Nintendo claim their still existing greatness, while many notice that not only does the emporer have no clothes, but he has been naked for some time.
It is my hope that Nintendo comes back to greatness. Yet at the same time I must honestly say they offer me nothing (1-3 games!?) today. Till then I'm looking forward to Saints Row 3 and GTA 5.
If Nintendo doesn't want my money I know some other companies that do and will deliver the games to get that cash.
Alien_Number_Six
A long time ago in a United States far far away Nintendo was the greatest game system in all the land. Children and adults squealed in delight when they found out the princess was in another castle. They lost there minds when they found out Samus Aran was a girl. Teenagers played The Legend of Zelda endlessly into the night. Awesome third party titles like Contra, Castlevania, Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden fed the hungry game populace. And then something happened. The kingdom of Nintendo grew old, tired, arrogant, and decadent. They assumed no one would rise to challenge them. They refused to change with the times. They took their loyal subjects for granted. And so the kingdom of Nintendo fell and was lost to the ravages of time. Spoken of only in fond whispers of days gone by..........
lucidity
Here's a little quote from EA's finncial report to put things into perspective:
"- X360, PS3, and Wii software revenue each grew from the September 2010 to September 2011 quarter, increasing $172m-$213m, $152m-$169m, and $25m-$45m respectively for the three consoles."
MasterOfWeed
Well, This is what happens when you make like 5 different freaking DSs and the successor to the Gamecube sucks.
hoof_hearted4
lol i love my 3DS, but thats it. i traded my PSP for it. sometimes i like just chillen and playing Pokemon, Zelda and Mario. but i like non serious games for hand held consoles, which is why the PSP failed for me....but for my main consoles (Ps3 and PC) i couldnt just sit and play said games. id need some GAMES. real games. ment for gaming. lol. i hope the Wii U changes things for nintendo. not that i plan on getting it, but for their sake. Nintendo is a classic, and i dont want to see them run out of town by Sony and Microsoft.
hoof_hearted4
lol i love my 3DS, but thats it. i traded my PSP for it. sometimes i like just chillen and playing Pokemon, Zelda and Mario. but i like non serious games for hand held consoles, which is why the PSP failed for me....but for my main consoles (Ps3 and PC) i couldnt just sit and play said games. id need some GAMES. real games. ment for gaming. lol. i hope the Wii U changes things for nintendo. not that i plan on getting it, but for their sake. Nintendo is a classic, and i dont want to see them run out of town by Sony and Microsoft.
hoof_hearted4
lol i love my 3DS, but thats it. i traded my PSP for it. sometimes i like just chillen and playing Pokemon, Zelda and Mario. but i like non serious games for hand held consoles, which is why the PSP failed for me....but for my main consoles (Ps3 and PC) i couldnt just sit and play said games. id need some GAMES. real games. ment for gaming. lol. i hope the Wii U changes things for nintendo. not that i plan on getting it, but for their sake. Nintendo is a classic, and i dont want to see them run out of town by Sony and Microsoft.
Tobi_IsAGoodBoy
ya i read it on gameinformer too that sales dont look so hot in the house of mario. The Wii U looks like it might be just as expensive or even more so than current Xbox 360 n ps3 with a ipad-like controller to boot but it my end up being cheaper than the Xbox 720 n ps4 lol only time will tell.
FuzzofPekinopolis
Lack of high quality third party titles IMHO is the main cause of their problems headed into the future. Nintendo can not adequately feed their customers without quality third party support (not shovel-ware). The industry finds it hard and cost deficient to produce quality titles for Nintendo. They need to take the death grip off of their consoles. They are successful at selling hardware, but in a down economy they will find console selling hard without quality third party support on a regular basis.
Since the N64 Nintendo has had this same problem. Why would anyone buy a future console with such a bad track record. Me and Nintendo are in the middle of a love hate relationship, and the hate seems to be growing more every year.
Lords-Ledgendz
Nintendo has all was ben a hand held gaming company the NES SNES and N64 where the best consoles they put out and yet they have more hand help game systems. I hope that all you guys know that sony use to work for Nintendo but Nintendo dint want to switch to a Disk formate. so Sony went and mad the Play Station. Rely but a dent in the Nintendo s progress in a reel console like the Game cub and the Wii. so if they transferred to disk when sony was than sony and Nintendo would be working to gather still and the big 3 might have been the big 2.
efry1GETZlaid
I guess less kids like kids' games. Just sayin...
Keeok
what a shame.
DPsx72
Another Nintendo doom article? You're so stupid G4, they aren't going anywhere. Profit is still profit even if they make a little less this year. And of course expenses are high after launching the 3DS and shortly the U in such a short timeframe. As long as they have their incredible portfolio of games and keep them coming at a steady pace then Nin will be around for many more years.
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