Nintendo has enough money to be safe for a long...long time

[Mirr0rR3flection]

My Wii prints MONEY!!! $ $

Thank you Nintendo!

[AlexPuma]

With that much money, one would think Nintendo would buy up a few more studios, maybe start a few new ones and take some risks with localizations. I never, NEVER want to go through another Wii drought like the past 2 years.

All that money means nothing if they continue to just sit on it. All we have to show for it is... the DS's successor whose gimmick ended up flopping so badly they had to drop the price to be only slightly higher than its predecessor to stop the bleeding until the games finally came, and a confused and tepid response to the Wii U's gimmick.

Also, can we stop with the "SONY IS DOOMED!" meme that's been going on this site for a while? I mean, judging by the chart SCE seems to have hit their stride after a disasterous PS3 launch bled most of their profits. I mean, I see no difference between a Nintendo Doomsayer and a Sony Doomsayer, just fanboys of a different color, that's all. *awaits people to accuse me of being a Sony fanboy for actually having something positive to say about them*

Also, I'm surprised that Microsoft has yet to profit from their gaming division. Though I shouldn't be, since the original Xbox was very much a money pit.

[Chased]

I'm really surprised with the people here...

Yes, guys, in a "healthy" economy this would be awesome....
But the economy does not work like this...Imagine a Great Depression (is not very unlikely to happen)...All this, is worth a tiny bit more than nothing!
Now, imagine that some companies which evaluate the economical state of business (like Moody's does for countries), want to profit from big companies going bankrupt...
They spread some bad news, they lie, they make some doomsday comments and manipulate some papers...
It's actually just safe (fake) gambling and betting against a company or country (the exact same thing they did against Greece) in going bankrupt...
I don't know if this is possible for private companies, but if it is, it's doomsday if they decide to do this...

All of N's money will worth nothing...

[Muigi]

Nintendo.

Doomed since 1963.

[Smitty89]

I wonder how much money went into Pikmin 3 and all the licensing...

[Mike_Intellivision]

With that much money, one would think Nintendo would buy up a few more studios, maybe start a few new ones and take some risks with localizations. I never, NEVER want to go through another Wii drought like the past 2 years.

All that money means nothing if they continue to just sit on it. All we have to show for it is... the DS's successor whose gimmick ended up flopping so badly they had to drop the price to be only slightly higher than its predecessor to stop the bleeding until the games finally came, and a confused and tepid response to the Wii U's gimmick.

Also, can we stop with the "SONY IS DOOMED!" meme that's been going on this site for a while? I mean, judging by the chart SCE seems to have hit their stride after a disasterous PS3 launch bled most of their profits. I mean, I see no difference between a Nintendo Doomsayer and a Sony Doomsayer, just fanboys of a different color, that's all. *awaits people to accuse me of being a Sony fanboy for actually having something positive to say about them*

Also, I'm surprised that Microsoft has yet to profit from their gaming division. Though I shouldn't be, since the original Xbox was very much a money pit.

My point has always been that given Sony's financials, I wonder why the general gaming media does not wonder about its future. Looking at that chart, Sony gaming lost about $5B from FY2006 to FY2010 until making a profit in FY2011. Of course, Sony is not doing well as a company (at least that is my understanding), so it may be other divisions dragging down gaming. Also, the PS Vita launch and PS4 R&D could hurt the bottom line for FY2012.

As for Microsoft, the chart shows its gaming being profitable since FY2007, or soon after the Xbox 360 launch. But you were correct, it paid a lot of money to enter the market. Only a company with billions in deserves and/or income (print) from others sources can afford to challenge that high barrier to market entry. (And why only Apple entering the market rumors are plausible, though even that is questionable).

Mike from Morgantown

[V3N0M]

With that much money, one would think Nintendo would buy up a few more studios, maybe start a few new ones and take some risks with localizations. I never, NEVER want to go through another Wii drought like the past 2 years.

All that money means nothing if they continue to just sit on it. All we have to show for it is... the DS's successor whose gimmick ended up flopping so badly they had to drop the price to be only slightly higher than its predecessor to stop the bleeding until the games finally came, and a confused and tepid response to the Wii U's gimmick.

Also, can we stop with the "SONY IS DOOMED!" meme that's been going on this site for a while? I mean, judging by the chart SCE seems to have hit their stride after a disasterous PS3 launch bled most of their profits. I mean, I see no difference between a Nintendo Doomsayer and a Sony Doomsayer, just fanboys of a different color, that's all. *awaits people to accuse me of being a Sony fanboy for actually having something positive to say about them*

Also, I'm surprised that Microsoft has yet to profit from their gaming division. Though I shouldn't be, since the original Xbox was very much a money pit.

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum what are you talking about. All I see on here is a bunch of nintendo is doomed jokes. People making fun of those who thought nintendo was actually doomed. Per chance were you being sarcastic???

[Tendonin]

It's funny because Nintendo literally CAN afford to "Dreamcast" themselves. Gamecube wasn't that far removed from being a Dreamcast (to say nothing of the same kind of hipster fanboys), and then there's the Virtual Boy, and all the shenanigans Yamauchi-san went through in the 60s and 70s... They can learn from their mistakes and try a new approach, which is probably why they're willing to try out crazy s*** like a 3D handheld and dual-sceen console in the first place. Hell, that's what got them the DS and Wii. Nintendo succeeds because they give themselves leeway to fail. And not just make some f***ing smartphone games because some dips*** in a shareholders meeting pressured them to.

[NeroSuferoth]

Then what was the deal with Iwata cutting down from his salary and whatnot?.. All this money supposedly and yet they can't bring themselves to localize a couple of games... sad.

[LegendofSantiago]

@NeroSuferoth Iwata cut his salary because he felt like he let the company down, not because he needed to. As for the games, they didn't expect to make a profit at a time where investors where yelling at them because their profits where down. Anyways, the games are coming so i don't see how that's relevant anymore

[SecondGearLuffy]

lol, I'm so bookmarking this. I always knew Nintendo was rich in the billions but never knew the actual facts.

[LegendofSantiago]

@AlexPuma ...wii drought the past 2 years? I thought 2010 was pretty awesome for wii owners.

"All that money means nothing if they continue to just sit on it. All we have to show for it is... the DS's successor whose gimmick ended up flopping so badly they had to drop the price to be only slightly higher than its predecessor to stop the bleeding until the games finally came, and a confused and tepid response to the Wii U's gimmick."

When everyone is expecting them to fail i would see why they would be hesitant to do a "ballsy" move. The 3DS's problem wasn't the 3D (although it received an abnormal amounts of attacks from the media hindering sales)the problem was the price and the fact that the games where far away. "Analysts" told Nintendo to price it the way they did but the price was to high. Nintendo also went on record saying that they wanted to help 3rd party games on their platform so they where going to work on their games while the 3rd parties "carried the system". That backfired causing them to take drastic measures. As for the wii U's "trepid response" the people who have had their hands on it seem to like it a lot (especially developers) but nintendo hasn't shown the reason why people will buy it which are Nintendo games in HD, that's what e3 2012 is for

"Also, can we stop with the "SONY IS DOOMED!" meme that's been going on this site for a while? I mean, judging by the chart SCE seems to have hit their stride after a disasterous PS3 launch bled most of their profits. I mean, I see no difference between a Nintendo Doomsayer and a Sony Doomsayer, just fanboys of a different color, that's all. *awaits people to accuse me of being a Sony fanboy for actually having something positive to say about them"

I haven't seen anyone say that here, at least for no reason. Also, i do think it's different from Nintendo doomsayers. Nintendo has made the most money this generation and they have taken their first hit in a long time. Sony has been taking a hit for about 5 years now and the lost pretty much all the money they made from the ps1-ps2 was lost. Also, sony as a whole isn't doing that well either. Also, your a member of a nintendo website, i won't call you a sony fanboy (becuase i don't think you are) but will it kill you to say something positive every once in a while. This is good news, no need to be a kill joy

[CrashMan]

hella doomed, bro.

[Alleyway]

I like how Nintendo's started off successfully and Microsoft started by losing tons of money. And you can point out right when the PS3 came out for Sony.

[redhatdrawler]

can someone form this article into a suppository and then shove that into the lower "mouth" michael pachter spews his garbage from?

Amen. Can I get an Amen?

amen

[AnoukiAgentYellow]

Nintendo
Doomed since 1989

[Hawk]

This is what scares me though... Nintendo just playing it safe. Take some risks, Nintendo. Make some new franchises, or some daring revivals.

[redhatdrawler]

This is what scares me though... Nintendo just playing it safe. Take some risks, Nintendo. Make some new franchises, or some daring revivals.

In my opinion, they haven't been really playing it safe, per say... and they're always doomed

Dual/touch screen on the DS
Motion controls on Wii
3D for 3DS
Tablet controller for WiiU

Its good they have all that extra bank so they have the oppurtunity to try new things like this. They aren't $ony or M$ with money coming from other departments to fund their gaming hobbies. And weren't they rumored to be working on 3 new IPs for WiiU?

[chris_the_wing]

Gamecube wasn't that far removed from being a Dreamcast...

Well, The Gamecube sold 21 million, the Xbox only sold 3 million more at 24 million. The reason Nintendo's revenue goes up at the same time that Microsoft's goes down is because Microsoft spent literally billions buying studio's (Rare) and pouring money into advertising themselves during the xbox/gcn gen. The fact that Xbox commercials were on TV all the time lead people to believe that the Xbox was a success, when in reality it was a blackhole.

[TheLastBlade]

@chris_the_wing

It's even more sadder that Rare did it's job to sell games.

[internet]

buying a studio is useless and in fact it might even lose the positive press a supposedly hardcore company could have , so no any independant company should be wise not to work with nintendo and criticize them all the time , it's the way this industry works . The new top dog at microsoft europe used to call out nintendo consumers , that's not something frequently seen elsewhere .

anyway it's a fairly well known fact , even before the ds /wii , but since they don't understand anything , well it's useful . i'm sure patcher is preparing a comeback right now

[Windsor]

Read this well, friends. This is how one makes a fool of himself.

1) Flinging the word 'gimmick' around at every given opportunity.
2) Flinging the word 'fanboy' around at every given opportunity.
3) Acting as though everyone on a Nintendo site hates Sony, and that being kind to them will bring you a unanimously negative response.
4) Not only implying but actually believing that the 3D screen is or was ever the problem with the 3DS. You hate 3D. We get it, kid. You can stop desperately trying to pin the 3DS' slow start on the 3D screen now. You aren't getting anywhere with that, and you certainly aren't convincing anyone of anything. Nintendo's mistake was stupidly raising the price of the unit after things went really well at E3 2010. The 3DS has since sold twice that of the DS in it's first year and already has twice the amount of quality titles the DS did in the same time frame. And for the record, the 3D is fantastic regardless of how hard you can hate on it.

You really should know by now that Nintendo's "gimmicks" work wonders. Nintendo tried playing things completely straight with the GameCube and look where that got them.

[Chosenoneknuckles]

This is what scares me though... Nintendo just playing it safe. Take some risks, Nintendo. Make some new franchises, or some daring revivals.

In my opinion, they haven't been really playing it safe, per say... and they're always doomed

Dual/touch screen on the DS
Motion controls on Wii
3D for 3DS
Tablet controller for WiiU

Its good they have all that extra bank so they have the opportunity to try new things like this. And weren't they rumored to be working on 3 new IPs for WiiU?

Exactly.

If the Wii had just been another sub-HD console with no motion controls and Nintendo games, it would've sold abit still , sure - but nowhere near the amount it did in reality. It would've been 3 near-carbon-copy consoles on the market for 5 odd years. Very boring!

Nintendo simply make people talk about their hardware [for good or worse] in a way that Sony and Microsoft's probably never will.

[Hawk]

@Chosenoneknuckles
@redhatdrawler

I'll definitely admit they're taking SOME risks. But these are some of other the risks I'd like to see take:

- Hardware that has actual POWER. The Wii's half-step up from Gamecube was VERY unambitious, and it sounds like the WiiU is only catching up with 360/PS3 instead of anticipating their replacements.
- Localize more of the foreign games, even if they might not make the money you want. You might earn your rewards in brand loyalty instead.
- Get us some more new franchises! I've been a Nintendo fan since 1984, and I actually DO worry about getting tired of Mario and Zelda.
- Use some of that extra cash to secure more exclusives, like you did with Monster Hunter. Microsoft and Sony do it all the time.
- Do something artistic. Make a game or two that is less likely to make money but would help push the gaming medium forward.

These are just some ideas. I think Nintendo has been a pioneer in the hardware front, but they're starting to get starchy and old in the games division.

[Chosenoneknuckles]

@Hawk Oh, they definitely haven't played a perfect hand this gen [neither have the other two].

Points 2-5 are sound [with 1 being a very big assumption pre-E3 Blowout with so many conflicting 'sources'].