Nintendo recently reported its six-month financial results for the first half of the current fiscal year, and the Kyoto, Japan-based publisher and developer had a pretty good haul, though certainly well below company expectations. According to data obtained by Gamasutra, total profit for the period came in at a cool $772 million, a 52 percent year-over-year decrease attributed to unfavorable exchange rates, as well as lower software and hardware sales. As a result, Nintendo significantly cut profit forecasts.
On the surface, it might seem like Nintendo’s gold-plated castle is eroding. Some might even suggest that the Wii and DS maker is in a tough spot, and should start searching for the panic button. Looking at the numbers though, I don’t agree.
Compared to the entirety of Sony, which expects to lose $1.04 billion during the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, Nintendo’s financial results look much rosier. The latter is, after all, still making money.
While it’s true that Wii sales are down compared to last year, Nintendo still sold 462,800 units in the U.S. during month of September. Pretty impressive to say the least. On the NPD hardware chart, it ranked third behind Nintendo’s own DS handheld, and Sony’s PlayStation 3, the latter of which saw a significant boost in sales thanks to the introduction of the 120 GB SKU. Nintendo recently slashed the Wii price by $50, but the massive surge in PS3 sales suggests that a significant number of consumers were waiting for the price to hit a so-called sweet spot.
For the five months preceding September, the Wii easily bested the Xbox 360 and PS3, with sales ranging from 252,500 to 361,700, according to NPD data obtained by Gamasutra. From April to August, only the DS managed to do better.
In handheld-dominated Japan, the PS3 has outsold the Wii consistently since the introduction of the 120 GB system, though the numbers have been extremely close in recent weeks. It will be interesting to see how things develop through the holiday season.
At some point though, weren’t Wii sales bound to decline? According to Gamasutra, the system shifted 10 million units between March 31 and Sept. 30 of 2008. By comparison, the PS3 moved 10.1 million for the entire fiscal year. To expect that adoption rate to extend through an entire console generation would be beyond ludicrous. You’d have to be an utter moron with no concept of market saturation.
As for the DS line, it continues to sell like crazy, and seems permanently affixed to the top of the U.S. and Japanese hardware charts. Expect that trend to continue with the DSi LL launching in Japan in November, and the DSi XL in North America and Europe next year.
Nintendo-published Wii software has been pretty rank as of late, but the company has some heavyweights on the way, including New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Metroid: Other M and Super Mario Galaxy 2. I also expect evergreen titles like Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and Mario Kart Wii to continue to sell.
On the portable front, Nintendo is prepping The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks for release in all territories, as well as Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver, which have yet to launch outside of Japan. New Super Mario Bros. and Mario Kart DS are likely to remain popular choices for new DS adopters.
I’m not saying that Nintendo is an infallible juggernaut or that the Wii will always be a hot seller. To the contrary, I see unclaimed systems sitting on retail shelves all the time. I just don’t believe that the sky is falling. The platform holder’s “Blue Ocean” strategy has certainly given it the advantage this generation, though what will happen in the future is merely conjecture. Look how quickly Nintendo rose to dominance after the GameCube generation. At the same time though, it seems there will always be an audience for Mario and Zelda games. Many kids are growing up with the plump plumber and Hylian hero much like their parents did on the NES, Game Boy and SNES. Most importantly though, let’s not forget that Nintendo is king of both the home and handheld console markets. So, don’t sound the alarm yet. From where I sit, Nintendo is doing just fine.
Sources: Gamasutra, Gamasutra, Gamasutra, Gamasutra, Gamasutra
Five Gamasutra links in one post. That must be a record.
|
Related posts: |
why? where are all these morons with no concept of “video games” coming from?! nintendo is the crappiest of the three all they sell is mini-games well actally when i say nintendo i mean the idiots who sell alongside nintendo.
When world at war is the best game on the wii something has to be wrong, and what can nintendo offer us? Mario, Metroid and wii crap. I wonder how many people watched nintendo’s E3 and were thinking “wow…..another mario game” before thinking about buying a 360 or PS3.
1) Selling crap? Sorry, but I reserve that for MS if anyone (however fun, if it’s known to break, it’s crap… fun crap, but crap none-the-less).
2) World at War is the BEST? Really? Personally I cant stand it, yet I LOVED other games (there goes the taste measurement), and rating wise…
http://www.metacritic.com/games/wii/scores/
It’s not even the best scored FPS, FORGET game…
1) microsoft dosen’t sell minigames last time i checked
2) i didn’t mean in my opioun, world at war won the golden joysticks nintendo game of the year
@ TimeWarp:
1) No, but they sold (maybe still sell, I dont know) a box with a rediculous failure rate. As I said, fun garbage.
2) All Im saying is if World at War is your best choice, you need to find more choices.
@dioretem
1)…good point actually
2) not my best choice, as i said before that’s what won the golden joysticks for best wii game which is dumb as super mario galaxy was a choice which is clearly better
though by that logic we would be debating how fallout 3 is GOTY so actually i go against my previous statement.
@TimeWarp
1) I try… there is usually some kind of logic behind my point.
2) Individual groups always make pics like that… thats why there are usually 4 or 5 games claiming to be GOTY each year.
I still don’t see Nintendo’s business plan being sustainable. They seem to primarily make their dollar selling loads of Wiis. They do sell lots of Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit and whatever every month, but PS3s and 360s still sell more software than they do.
So then, what happens when everyone who wants a Wii has one? That’s when I think we’re going to see some trouble for Nintendo unless they actually start making more games more often. Or.. they could release a new system, but I have a hard time believing “casual” gamers will care to get a new Wii when they already have one.
What happens when everybody that wants a Wii has one?
Nintendo makes the Wii 2.
Nuff said.
Jitterbug’s said it for me. I know that I’m not going to buy a Wii 2, and I have no backing on this but I have a hard time seeing “casual” gamers buy one as well.
I’ve played New Super Mario Bros Wii. Trust me, that game will shift in the bajillions. Nintendo are in no danger whatsoever.
urm krelith? Even if it was just mario sitting there and jumping and saying pharses in he’s dumb annoying voice it would sell in the bajillions. Take a look at mario kart. Just proves me and all the other nintendo haters right.
Not really sure what your argument is other than “WAH WAH I hate Nintendo… WAH WAH.”
doc adam’s parody video says my argument for me, i don’t hate nintendo i want them to release a better game for nintendo. Their ignoring me and every hardcore gamer out there.
I bought a wii thinking it might encourage nintendo to think up some truley awesome games but so far all we’ve had is tripes like cooking mama and mario and sonic at the olmypic games. I like mario games but even you have to edmit that nintendo needs a new IP.
Okay okay okay… Recently I put up a post that said, “Finally the Wii is Dying” or something of that sort in response to the article mentioned in this post. The thread was closed because it ended up drawing in a lot of Wii hate speech, but I don’t think it was given a chance to flesh itself out.
Sorry people, but the Wii IS dying. Not dead, but dying. It could be argued that the 360 and the PS3 are either in the same process or on the precipice of it as we speak. The current gen systems have peaked and we will soon see the announcements of NEXT gen coming out from Microsoft, then Nintendo, and maybe one day from Sony too.
The real question at hand here isn’t if the Wii is dying (again, it is. Quell your desire to call me a Wii-hater by understanding that I am saying that ALL the consoles are beginning their death march.) The real question is whether all the Wii buyers will fork out cash for Nintendo’s next console.
IMO, Nintendo suckered a generation of gamers into buying their system. The promise of a new level of interactivity was never truly capitalized on beyond simplistic, goofy, mini-gameplay. The system did a great job of getting the family together to play games, but now those gamers are growing up, and the idea of playing some dumbed down version of the most popular games on the market (have you seen the new COD MW2 Wii game…. sigh) isn’t that appealing.
Has Nintendo squandered the benefit gained by this mass exposure of the Wii with pitiful shovelware that my 5 year old daughter gets tired of playing after ten minutes??? I know they have with me. Put my vote in the ‘skeptical of Nintendo’ column. I can’t imagine what they could do to get me to stand in line day one for their next system.
Im still going to say it’s not dying, just the steroids wore off.
However, I also think you are jumping the gun on all of them… with a money crunch on, people will hold onto their current systems longer. I think Sony may have been right about a longer life this time… just not why (sadly).
I see your point about the economy, but I also think that Videogames have proven themselves as being as close to a recession-proof industry as any entertainment media out there. I expect to see the NEXT GEN stuff announced within 6 – 9 months (nothing concrete, but the hinting rumblings through the industry that precede official announcements.)
@Jitterbug: Care to make a wager on that? On sponsorship of extra life next year?
I gotta disagree.
Wii Sports Resort is a GOTY candidate in my opinion. Great game, great use of the motion controls and its a lot of fun. I expect the new super mario bros game to be good as well.
Nintendo is more of an exercising tool than a gaming console for me. I loved what Nintendo was but now we (the hardcore gamers) have the xbox and ps3. The only thing I can say is that the Wii is great but it has nothing to offer me. It will be interesting how Nintendos future is going to look… Wii HD? is the mainstream really going to buy that? i don’t know… not everyone has a TV with 1080p and people buying the Wii isn’t buying it for graphics.
SMG2 should be good, the inclusion of yoshi is awesome and the whole game just seems like pure awesomesauce. Though i find all mario games frustatingly annoying not that it dosen’t make them bad just that their hard games to play.
Wait. People actually read my articles?
Lets not get ahead of ourselves. lol.
i just wait for lono to go seeing as he pretty much hates on anyone who dosen’t share he’s opioun, seriously what is he’s problem i didn’t think he even liked nintendo.
I used to own a wii before they pretty much screwed me over with the whole only making casual games so i’m actually looking forward to the wave of proper games apart from new super mario bros wii i don’t even know what it is about that game but it just seems like new super mario bros for the DS though with those new features i might be wrong so i’m not betting on it being good or bad i’m just waiting for now.