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Nintendo lowers forecast from ¥55B profit to ¥25B loss [3DS 18M->13.5; WiiU 9M->2.8M]

cyberheater

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
Hopefully the feedback from the Wii U and market research to prevent this from happen again will put them on the right path..

I don't think Nintendo are capable enough to compete on hardware performance. I can't see them having the ability to bring out a console that's more powerful then the PS4. If they can't do that then they should pull out of the home console hardware business.
 
Losing money is never good but, and pardon my ignorance, is $250mil a lot to a company the size of Nintendo? Obviously they need to fix what's broken within their company, but how much immediate trouble are they really in? Is it unusual for a company to post a loss? Reading some comments in this thread it sounds like $250mil is indeed a lot, but... is it?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Its all just talk. The same as his "please understand" BS. I'm wondering, could the investors/board of directors/anyone FORCE him to resign?
The shareholders can vote him out at the annual meeting, but it's exceedingly rare for that to happen.

He did drop a lot on the confidence vote last year however.
 

MisterHero

Super Member
How on earth are you comparing Kaz to Iwata? Kaz is leading a massive turn-around at Sony.
But not before PS3. And they still have Vita.

Granted they are taking steps to salvage the latter with Vita TV. PS4 is doing well, but the other things can't be ignored.
 
Remember the days when Nintendo used to pay out lavish dividends? Those were good times.

uc9hwYn.png


Projected year-end dividend for 74th fiscal year: 100 JPY year-end, no interim.
 

Sandfox

Member
Its all just talk. The same as his "please understand" BS. I'm wondering, could the investors/board of directors/anyone FORCE him to resign?

Depending on what his immediate plans to change thing quickly are and how it forces his hand to do new things it might end up being something the board and investors want to see.

How on earth are you comparing Kaz to Iwata? Kaz is leading a massive turn-around at Sony.

Kaz still isn't doing things people want/expected from him.
 

Anth0ny

Member
http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASHD1700Y_X10C14A1000000/

Iwata was quoted at the press conference today saying that he feels responsibility for the poor business performance at Nintendo, and he is sorry to all shareholders. He says the most important thing is to revigorate Nintendo's business as quickly as possible. He will NOT resign, but stay in office to carry that through.

That's an interesting way to translate "please understand".
 

Kosma

Banned
Why not?

It was doing badly. It had no third party support. It had big droughts. It's the same damn situation.

So how will you put out big games on Wii U that have 3 years dev time?

There is no 3rd party support coming cause thats moved to next gen.

It's not a handheld where you can poop out an AAA game in 18 months so Nintendo can't do much to change the 1st party situation either.
 

AniHawk

Member
So... Gameboy Micro 2?

I'm down.

essentially, yeah. that's what i had in mind. except four face buttons so lefties can have fun too.

psp-level power with touch screen and motion controls. enough strength to run streaming services, but not so much that it makes the hardware unprofitable. something could probably be done for a $99 launch in 2016.
 

JordanN

Banned
I'm sick of people screaming "fire Iwata" left and right without saying anything about who should replace him. And I'm very curios who could take his place, because I can't think of anybody who would cut his paycheck multiple times and refuse to fire people for the sake of the company. I'm also quite sure nobody with his background and knowledge would step up to lead such a huge company. It's a huge deal and people here think it's so easy.
Anyone who graduated with an M.B.A can replace him.
 

GCX

Member
Why not?

It was doing badly. It had no third party support. It had big droughts. It's the same damn situation.
WiiU has got both a price drop and AAA games and those haven't worked. Also the home console market has far more direct competition.
 
Losing money is never good but, and pardon my ignorance, is $250mil a lot to a company the size of Nintendo? Obviously they need to fix what's broken within their company, but how much immediate trouble are they really in? Is it unusual for a company to post a loss? Reading some comments in this thread it sounds like $250mil is indeed a lot, but... is it?

The $250m are just a foretaste of the next years. 3DS and WiiU are declining or already dead and every new system will cost alot of money until it can make money.
 

Sendou

Member
The biggest mistake Nintendo has made in recent years was not expanding during the height of Wii's success. If they had scaled up their development capabilities back then they could have avoided the software droughts that have damaged 3DS and Wii U, instead they kept everything in the warchest and their teams just couldn't make the games quick enough.

Except they did exactly that? It's just that we haven't seen the fruits of those investments yet.

Anyone who graduated with an M.B.A can replace him.

lol
 

SmokyDave

Member
Why not?

It was doing badly. It had no third party support. It had big droughts. It's the same damn situation.
Yeah, it's exactly the same. Remember when those two other handhelds came out a year later and destroyed it whilst racking up the biggest ever launches the industry had seen?
 

redcrayon

Member
the idea is to separate the type of software that comes to both systems. there are a lot of console-like games on the 3ds already, so theoretically, the next handheld will probably be slightly more powerful than the vita, and graphically resemble a wii u. so my idea is that they take their successful handheld line and basically give it a tv out.

the other handheld would be for an extreme lower end part of the market and feature more mainstream games. it would basically be a brand new line of hardware meant to be inexpensive and push towards a larger market.

or in short:
wii u -> no follow-up
3ds -> 'hybrid' high end handheld (similar to the current 3ds line) targeting a traditional enthusiast market
no current predecessor -> mass-market handheld

i just think chasing the microsoft/sony market is a recipe for disaster, and they lost their chance at consoles unless they do something incredibly drastic with the next one like have oculus rift in every box. this would also help keep risk minimal by requiring less manpower per project. if they do bigger power increases next gen, they're going to have to be at a wii u/vita level for the handheld and beyond that for the console.
I agree that the software range is too similar, and wonder if they have shot themselves in the foot as the two systems have become closer in the type of games they can run. I haven't bothered with a WiiU mainly as with console-style games like Luigi's Mansion 2, Mario Kart 7, Resident Evil on the 3DS, plus Smash upcoming, loads of JRPGs and combined with the handheld regulars of Pokemon, FireEmblem etc, it just feels like I can get everything I want from them on one machine.

While Super Mario 3D World looks amazing, I think it would have taken something spectacularly different like Galaxy to make me pick up a WiiU when I already have 3D Land on the 3DS. The difference in power was what made the DS/Wii and GBA/Gamecube libraries almost entirely different with the portables focused more on 2D and quirky stuff.

I do think there is more of a future in selling some sort of portable device where they can sell one to each person, rather than one per family though.
 

Chocolate & Vanilla

Fuck Strawberry
Surely Iwata is gonna hang for this. I imagine he won't go voluntarily simply because he won't want to miss out on severance package he would most likely receive if they dismiss him.
 

MBR

Banned
http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASHD1700Y_X10C14A1000000/

Iwata was quoted at the press conference today saying that he feels responsibility for the poor business performance at Nintendo, and he is sorry to all shareholders. He says the most important thing is to revigorate Nintendo's business as quickly as possible. He will NOT resign, but stay in office to carry that through.
What might "as quickly as possible" mean here? We should get more statements relatively soon depending on how hard their stocks are hit because of this.

I wonder if they're planning something big before end of FY.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I feel Nintendo's issues are far more systemic than Iwata and what needs to happen is massive strategy change regardless of who is at the helm.
 

kmax

Member
Its all just talk. The same as his "please understand" BS. I'm wondering, could the investors/board of directors/anyone FORCE him to resign?

They'd probably let him save face by having him resign, but Nintendo will force him out if changes aren't happening. He really is on the brink, and his position is under heavy scrutiny now. Investors are going to want incentives to have a reason to continue to invest in the company.
 

Tookay

Member
Except they did exactly that? It's just that we haven't seen the fruits of those investments yet.

Then they haven't done exactly that.

Because we would have seen the fruits of those investments had they been done at the proper time.

(What I'm suggesting is that your second sentence invalidates your first.)
 
Maybe the same reason people bought PS4/XBO and Call of Duty or the next Killzone or Dead Rising. lol

The co-worker was looking at it for her kids though. A fairly large portion of the Wii/DS audience is in that group I would expect.

It's that 15-30 group that need the new COD every 12 months to play online with their online friends that are part of the early adopter group of the PS4/X1.
 
I feel Nintendo's issues are far more systemic than Iwata and what needs to happen is massive strategy change regardless of who is at the helm.

I actually do agree, it seems to be a company wide philosophy that is the issue but I think the right leader could at least start a course correction.
 
Can someone shop Iwata's head onto Homer?, I feel like this is Nintendo now riding that bomb right to the end.

bomb3.gif

Only if we can use the original and better source material from Dr. Strangelove

400sw409957.gif


I feel Nintendo's issues are far more systemic than Iwata and what needs to happen is massive strategy change regardless of who is at the helm.

Well sure, but that could be said about most failing organizations. Change comes from the top down.
 

Sandfox

Member
What might "as quickly as possible" mean here? We should get more statements relatively soon depending on how hard their stocks are hit because of this.

I wonder if they're planning something big before end of FY.

We'll probably find out at the investor's meeting and if its not a good plan then they'll want him gone.
 

L Thammy

Member
The biggest mistake Nintendo has made in recent years was not expanding during the height of Wii's success. If they had scaled up their development capabilities back then they could have avoided the software droughts that have damaged 3DS and Wii U, instead they kept everything in the warchest and their teams just couldn't make the games quick enough.

Combined with the 'it's ready when it's ready' mantra it ended up being a disaster. Nintendo as a company is incredibly conservative and it's unlikely that they would have done too much different with another CEO, the board would be the same old farts, but certainly Iwata has to accept some responsibility. He has acknowledged the software drought issue countless times but 4 console launches later and it's still happening. They're doing the expansion now but it's coming far too late to save the Wii U.

Totally agree with this. It's a classic example of victory disease. When you're on top you should prepare for the future. It's a similar situation to Sony going into the PS3.
 

duckroll

Member
What might "as quickly as possible" mean here? We should get more statements relatively soon depending on how hard their stocks are hit because of this.

I wonder if they're planning something big before end of FY.

He literally says "Hereafter, the most important task is to restore the vigor of business at the early stage". It's impossible to discern what he really means in that simple sentence, so it's probably best not to look too much into it. It's just generic "we will recover before its too late" business talk.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Liking Iwata and Iwata having a positive philosophy towards good video games ≠ commercial for success for Nintendo

It's not a complicated puzzle, and it's not like Nintendo shit out the Wii U one afternoon after a single meeting (even if it seems that way). Millions would have been sunk into R&D for a product, and accompanying software, they expected to see success. It did not. The success is not there. Clearly, by definition of real world performance, bad decisions were made that need not be repeated in the very near future. Action need to be implemented to reverse damage caused by these bad decisions, and if a person's leadership and overall corporate philosophy is failing to do this then clearly changed need to be bad. They need to be made to benefit the company in question, in order for them to flourish and continue providing customers with the high quality products we know they can.

The notion that Iwata's positive software quality philosophy is mutually exclusive to Nintendo seeing commercial success is a fallacy and one that will literally doom the company. Nintendo can see commercial success and produce some of the best content in the medium. They've done it before, including recently. But they need to do it without burning through millions of dollars due to bad ideas and busted future planning and ignorance towards the global market, and if an overhaul in senior management is necessary for this to happen, then it should happen.

Just because Iwata, Miyamoto, and other senior staff at Nintendo are incredibly intelligent, talented, educated, and valuable in certain areas of video game development does not mean they're infallible in running the company at large and dictating its future to the benefit of that software and commercial success.
 

spekkeh

Banned
http://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASHD1700Y_X10C14A1000000/

Iwata was quoted at the press conference today saying that he feels responsibility for the poor business performance at Nintendo, and he is sorry to all shareholders. He says the most important thing is to revigorate Nintendo's business as quickly as possible. He will NOT resign, but stay in office to carry that through.

Whelp. I was pretty sure that this big forecast cut at the end of the Fiscal Year was surely Iwata going to take the fall so his successor could be put in a comfortable saddle. I hope for Iwata that Yamauchi estate is still backing him, because I can imagine a few shareholders being livid.
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
Except they did exactly that? It's just that we haven't seen the fruits of those investments yet.

The Wii effectively died in 2010, almost four years on and Nintendo is only just managing to release titles like Wii Fit U and Pikmin, titles that were supposed to come out in December 2012. Their development pipelines are a complete mess and don't seem to have been made any more efficient.
 

Xater

Member
I feel Nintendo's issues are far more systemic than Iwata and what needs to happen is massive strategy change regardless of who is at the helm.

That much is obvious, but even if those changes happen there will most likely not be any rewards with this hardware.
 
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