Iwata Is Innately Upset with Q2 2014 Results | Major Overhaul Presently Avoidable

Racking up larger-than-expected quarterly operating losses thanks to the overall less than stellar, yet rising sales of its next-generation home console platform, the Wii U game, Nintendo's overall Q2 2014 results have prompted Nintendo President and CEO Saturo Iwata to acknowledge these findings as disappointing, but apparently not disappointing enough to set an overhaul in motion.

[-Mika-]

I don't know why but reading this just put a smile on my face. Hopefully this teaches Nintendo not to half ass their future hardware.

[Yep]

Meanwhile, all the way back in 2011...

http://www.youtube.com/watc...
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

I had a smile on my face too, but for a very different reason related to Iwata actually acknowledging a problem.

I'm expecting 2014 to be a good year for Wii U if Nintendo plays their cards right.

[LOL_WUT]

Hopefully this straightens them out a little. They dropped the WiiU's price which helped but it was a little too late. Also they've been having new game releases every month but at the cost of some delays. I still think Iwata is not the right person to run the company. It's not about what he did in the past but what he's doing now moving forward and too be honest with you it's not enough ;)

[Anarki]

Make a Pokemon for Wii U and watch the consoles sell.

[UltimateMaster]

The hardware isn't actually as much of a problem as the software is.
They have an HD console after all, why not make HD graphics with detailed avatars.
And for Nintendo Fanboys, NO! A 1080p Mii isn't a detailed character.
The game I'm looking the most forward to is X from Monolith.

[Yep]

Not even sure how I got down-votes (actually, I am). I agree with all of the comments above (Yes, even you LOL_WUT ;)...except for the part about Iwata stepping down. I think he's still got some time to prove himself yet).

[Thepcz]

yeah, not just hardware, but software too.

[live2play]

Aww Mika that's mighty nice of you to be happy for Nintendo.

I'm glad you find it good that despite nintendos problems with the wiiu, they are still confident in what their plans are for the wiiu and don't need to overhaul their strategies and begin firing people.

I didn't know you became a Nintendo supporter

anyways I'm glad this brings you smiles, and I'll be right there with you wishing Nintendo the best

bubbles up new Nintendo friend :)

[deafdani]

Nicely played.

[stragomccloud]

Are you still here? Don't trolls have better things to do? Can't you, you know.... be spending your time playing... I don't know... games? Instead of wasting your time by trolling every Nintendo article. Get a life. This is pretty sad.

[MisfitsInc]

hardware, software, and marketing.

[worldwidegaming]

I dont think the hardware is an issue as much as the games.
If they came out with the most powerful system I am quite sure
No one will buy because they will be waiting for the next sony or microsoft model.
This is evident in Apple vs Android.
No games, no Buy!

[Thepcz]

exactly.

i want a wiiu, but as it is right now, if i bought one i probably wouldnt even take it out the box.

we need more along the lines of xenoblade 2, and less of wario game and watch.

there has been rumour of nintendo releasing updated versions of old/classic games to fill the barren release schedule... but that is precisely wiius problem, they keep serving up starters but the main course never seems to come. the little nibbles are nice but without the main meal you may as well leave the table

[Orionsangel]

I think Nintendo fans are growing up and expect more from Nintendo. Look at what they offer on Nintendo Direct for Wii U. Announcing a character that will appear on the next Smash Brothers? Who cares. Especially when they keep announcing obvious characters. Luigi will be in it? No way! Didn't see that coming. Nintendo is talking down to it's fans. Nintendo needs to grow up, just a little. They can keep being the Nintendo we know and love, but start taking more chances. Start thinking outside the box. Realize that we expect more in 2014 than the fitness girl from Wii fit in smash brothers. It's not cute anymore Nintendo.

[MrCastle]

Yes sir, I am in complete agreeance. I wish Nintendo would grow up with its gamers. I mean, remember perfect dark? Or goldeneye? Adult games that were a lot of fun. And then they took a step back and went back to pikmin and Mario again. Maybe they need to beg RARE back to develop software again.

[blueberry]

Also, the thing that served to ultimately kill them in the end was none other than the infamous WII itself, having scared of half the followers (before the WII came, I never thought I would have to buy an xbox 360!!) alianating the rest of them for good, and just annoying the heck of us with the force of controllers we had to point and move around like crazy when all I ever wanted to do was sit and play -

Serves them right. Absolutely. no pity from me.

Still hope they learn their lesson.

And for the love of god...just stop it with the oversimplifying games.................no more Skyward Sword.

(Of course...I can´t really blame owners of the console, who actually expect a game, god forbid two, after almost two years...)

[TheBurger29]

how about another mario game! not like we dont already have 100 of them...

[computeSci]

how about another COD game! not like we dont already have 100 of them...

copy and paste parody :-/

[MrCastle]

To be fair, cod is on all consoles. Nintendo 1st party developent has been few and far between.

[NarooN]

Mario Kart XXVII: The Reckoning

[deafdani]

Out of all the possible examples, you had to use Mario Kart? The franchise that has only had 8 entries in 21 years?

Lol you.

[mydyingparadiselost]

Mario Party 31: Drinking games

[NarooN]

@deafdani

It was clearly a joke. The joke was that there's just a shitload of Mario games out there.

Dunno why you got offended.

[AbortMission]

Bbut bbut bbut CATSUIT!!! NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE!!!

[Orionsangel]

There's 3 levels of Mario games. There's the usually lame Mario attached to a sport or some other activity. Then you have New SMB and Mario 3D World. Those are good. But then you have that innovative Mario game. Mario 64, Mario Galaxy. The one that takes Mario to the next level. The Wii U needs that as fast as possible! Maybe, Mario Universe?

[Thepcz]

yes, i keep saying this too. mario 3d world is not on the same level as mario 64/sunshine/galaxy. you can tell right away this 3d world game is mario on a budget. mario on a short development cycle. mario minus all the magic.

remember in galaxy they would have those little worlds you would go to, and they were clearly just 'fillers,' that is, they werent actual stages or courses, but merely abstract platforms or paths you just ran along... just to add padding to the game. everything i have seen of mario 3d world looks like that.

[Neonridr]

I love how people "think" that Mario 3D World is not a fully fledged Mario game. Why don't we wait until we can actually play the game to determine that. Let's take the guesswork out of the equation..

[Orionsangel]

@Neonridr Mario 3D is not a game changer. It's a great Mario game I'm sure, but it's not going to get people like me who grew up on Nintendo and have abandon them to return to Nintendo, but an amazing Mario and Zelda game that's ambitious and takes the franchise to the next level. Can do that, for example. Mario Galaxy made me buy a Wii. Nothing so far makes me wanna buy a Wii U.

[computeSci]

Well, I'm a gamer. The only thing that's holding me back is software. I may pick one up when Mario 3D World comes out. Personally, I think Nintendo never should have used the word Wii again. Maybe they should of just went back to the basics and named it NES.

[MASTER_RAIDEN]

man i dont care how many consoles i buy from sony or ms. nintendo will always have such a huge place in my heart as a gamer. i hate to hear that theyre having troubles like this.

[luisvideogames]

DIE DIE DIE

[Felonycarclub8]

They need the games people want

[colonel179]

We all know Nintendo hit the Jackpot with the Wii. Its success was unprecedented. However, it didn't have legs long enough since it reached its sales' peak and after that it was all downhill, but that was the perfect clue for Nintendo to treat the Wii as just that, a Jackpot, a one time only lucky strike.

With the great success of the Wii and the 3DS, they could have made the Wii U a great piece of hardware, to compete directly with PS4 and Xbox One. At least, they would be getting full third party support. Also, Nintendo could still have made an original controller and have all the bells and whistles they always do to make their consoles innovative and original.

IMO, they lacked vision when they decided to release the Wii U as it is. They maybe thought they could replicate the success of the Wii by having the Wii U controller and ride on the success of the tablets, but it is power what they need. Graphics might not be the very essential thing in a game, but without the power, games like Uncharted, Mass Effect, GTA V, etc could never be done.

Nintendo has great franchises and a lot of them. They had resources. They had everything in place to have a great console, with great power and technology and they chose not to. It is a shame. Their games will always have great quality, but there needs to be more in a Nintendo console than Nintendo games. Nintendo DS and 3DS know about that.

[computeSci]

Vita has great power and technology, yet, the 3DS runs circles around it with it's inferior hardware. Not trying to start any trouble but in my humble opinion, your logic kind of fails.

[colonel179]

It's different, since the market for handhelds is different by nature. Consoles need to be powerful in order to be supported. Why do you think then, that the Wii U is not getting support from third parties? Not one third party publisher is going to spend time and resources to squeeze their games on the Wii U when they can make the games easier and faster for PS4 and Xbox One.

Why else do you think the Wii got different versions of games that were on PS3 and 360?

[miyamoto]

psp and ps vita runs circles around the suposedly moar superior moar powerful wii u.... and there is nothing humble in your comment or opinion
there your comment got used on you

[Thepcz]

handheld market is different to console. sonys mistake is trying to market its handhelds the same way they do its consoles. nintendos mistake with the wiiu is treating it like a handheld.

ie these mini game collections, these pathetic shallow experiences they are trying to sell recently... they work for a handheld. but consoles demand a much more rich experience, they demand more immersion. nobody buys a console for wario game and watch. i wish nintendo would get with the program

[Neonridr]

@miyamoto - did you just say that the PSP and Vita are more powerful than the Wii U?

wow, I think I just lost some brain cells reading that sentence..

[deafdani]

While you raise perfectly valid points, but I wanted to note out that the Gamecube was on power parity with the PS2 and the original Xbox, hardware wise (it was, in fact, more powerful than the PS2).

And it had decent third party support as far as I know... but still ended up being the least selling of the three consoles of that generation, managing to sell even less than the N64.

Yes, it still turned a nice profit for Nintendo, but they saw that each new console they released was selling less than the previous one, so they changed the strategy. Hence the Wii.

And the Wii worked for them, so maybe they thought they could try that strategy again for the Wii U. Can you blame them for this, really?

So far, the Wii U hasn't taken off. That doesn't mean it's doomed, or that it's beyond any help. Nintendo can still turn the situation again, but for that to happen, I think that they need to give the Wii U much stronger first party support. I mean, stronger first party support than they've ever done for any other console before it.

And if that happens, I would be pretty happy, even if the Wii U doesn't get strong third party support.

The thing is, you can bet Nintendo isn't going to sit idly and let their console die. They will react, and I'd dare say they started taking action a couple months ago.

Let's see how this turns out on the long run. For the immediate future, I have Mario 3D World, Donkey Kong and Mario Kart 8 to look forward to. Followed by Bayonetta 2 and X, which I expect to release towards the end of 2014.

[Dunban67]

other than the price drop, what action did they take a couple months ago? They stated their strategy in ar;y 2013 and have not deviated from it to their detriment- (release games on a consistent basis starting 3rd Q 2013) they have stuck to this strategy and Iwata reiterates again to wait for the "big games" to come thru-

They need to be investing more $$ s in the console, in games for the console and marketing for the console- It does not appear they have made any changes to their original strategy and do not plan to make any until after Mario Kart is released (if needed)

They seem hell bent on not putting resources into the Wii U- I don t see how they or anyone could be surprised at their results to date based on their efforts to date

[Thepcz]

i think the GCs success only pales in comparison to the popularity of the ps2. wasnt that the best selling console of all time? of course any competition at that time was blown away.

the wiiu is just an outright failure though. it had the entire next gen market to itself for over a year and still didnt capture the gamers imagination. and STILL no games worthy enough for the £200+ asking price.

when ps4 and x1 arrive on the scene, wiiu is going to disappear into obscurity very fast

[computeSci]

@ colonel

However, the Wii still succeeded right? So you still kind of contradicted yourself. The inferior Wii was going up against powerful HD consoles and yet the Wii is considered a success.

[MasterCratosKong66]

"Consoles need to be powerful in order to be supported. Why do you think then, that the Wii U is not getting support from third parties?"

So I guess when gamecube was more powerful than PS2 and the PS2 got more 3rd parties, it was just a mistake...

[Neonridr]

LOL, the Wii U can display graphics equal and better than Mass Effect and GTA V, so that argument is pretty ridiculous...

Let's stop pretending like the Wii U is less powerful than the 360 or PS3. ANYTHING that those consoles can do the Wii U can do. Most developers are just to lazy to optimize it properly so it can do better..

The Wii U is more than capable as a machine to put out pretty visuals. They need games that people want to play, that's it.

Unfortunately they assumed that the 3rd party would be there from the beginning to bail them out. And they were partially right, however releasing late or gimped ports created a sour taste in consumers mouths and spoke with their wallets by not purchasing the games. Developers got a sour taste in their mouth from the Wii U and decided that it wasn't a worthwhile investment. Nintendo is left to pick up the pieces once again and hold their platform afloat long enough to build the install base up to a level where some of the larger 3rd party developers will want to work with Nintendo again...

[colonel179]

Obviously the Wii U is more powerful than the PS3 and 360, but not more than PS4 and XO, and developers will start making games for PS4 and XO, not PS3 and 360, so the Wii U will be incapable of having those games at 100% capacity.

[Neonridr]

Oh I totally understand. I wasn't saying that the Wii U was more powerful than the XB1 or PS4. It isn't even close. What I meant was that Games like GTA V, Mass Effect, etc can easily be done on the Wii U. And these are games that were impressing us up until a few months ago.

So while the Wii U won't be up to par when comparing to XB1/PS4 games, the graphics is can produce should still be enough to satisfy many gamers out there.

[0pie]

this guy need to get kicked out of nintendo as soon as possible.
Its a living disaster on 2 legs.

And it come from someone (me) who doesnt really like nintendo but i dont want to see them go away because of Iwata.

[deafdani]

Yeah, the dude that made the DS successful, the Wii successful, and the 3DS selling like hotcakes now, needs to be kicked out of Nintendo because the Wii U hasn't taken off yet. Let's completely disregard the fact that Nintendo has earned billions of dollars thanks to him, shall we?

Because he can't turn the Wii U around... just like he was completely unable to turn the 3DS around and now that handheld flopped! /s

[PopRocks359]

Been saying that for at least a couple of months. Bubble up.

[0pie]

You are right but ... the fact that they are losing a shit load of money because of the wii u is highly problematic.

The guy doesnt seem to be down to earth, i dont know on which planet he live on but ... Just look at the wii-u which isnt on par with next gen console and also the fact that myamoto said that nintendo dont want to deal with "online games".

It just prove how retarded these guys are. Im sorry to say that but Myamoto is out of touch when he say things like that.

Nintendo need to evolve and they need to be in 2013 like everyone else in the industry.

Dont get me wrong, i love nintendo and i dont want them to close but when i see what Iwata is doing... The future doesnt see so bright. Even 3rd party developpers dont want to touch at the wiiu which is a huge issue when you have games like Battlefield4 or final fantasy that will never be on wii-u.

[MrCastle]

People pick on Xbox One, but the wii u had a pretty terrible launch. Hell I thought it was just a tablet till I went to buy one. And Nintendo still needs a launch title to this day.
Love ya Nintendo, but it's time to take stock.

[noloyalties]

I love my Wii U! It's a high quality, well built machine. But I never play it, not because its less powerful than next gen but because they're too slow at releasing games that I want to play. If the Wii U had released with a killer 1st party Mario title from the start, things would have been different. Even this new 3D Super Mario title seems weak compared to some from the past. The new Mario Kart is the very first game I'm actually excited about since this consoles release.

Get a clue Nintendo, less innovation and more games!

[LOL_WUT]

What innovations? They didn't bother to improve upon what both Microsoft and Sony were doing. No cross game chat, no in-game invites, no real focus on online multiplayer games not to mentioned how they underestimated the transition to HD and the list goes on. ;)

[The_Villager]

You love pointing out negatives about Nintendo don't you? But when it comes to Sony they can do no wrong. You are the definition of a fanboy.

[truechainz]

You listed things Nintendo has not improved on or added from other consoles. Not sure if you know what innovation means because those are improvements.

[cyhm3112]

nowdays, people want everything. Both hardware and software are important. xbone and wiiu will fail because the hardware is weaker. PS4 will win.

[deafdani]

"PS4 will win".

And it will make you extremely glad that the PS4 sells the most, will it? Even if total console sales don't bear absolutely any impact in your personal life, unless you're a Sony shareholder?

Because if you aren't, then you are a Sony fanboy, plain and simple.

And if you talk about games... you know there's this thing about gaming tastes... they're subjective. You may love the kind of games Sony offer, and some other people may love the kind of games that Microsoft or Nintendo offer.

Shocking, right? Don't worry. Sit down and breathe. Everything's going to be fine.

In the end, we shouldn't want one company or the other to do bad. Competition is healthy for the industry. I want all three corporations to succeed with their respective consoles, I want all three consoles to offer loads of games and unique experiences. You should, too.

[MegaRay]

I think hes right. For me I like 3rd party games and im going for PS4. Stronger, cheaper, and has alot of 3rd party support. Buying a WiiU for me is depending on whether it has 1st party that interested me or not (not alot atm 1-3 only) and so x1

[Ninte]

I don't like the gamepad much enough said

[bowserone]

Alright good! First things first nintendo. U wana be back on top for real? (Not like with the wii where soccer moms bought it and gamers were like....meh.) here ya go. Hardcore love
1.stop with the wacky controllers and gimmicks. Only first party titles seem to incorporate them well.
2.drop the family friendly kid, heavy censorship flag you got flying. U need the gta games, call of duty games, that next big title etc. Yeah I hate shooters as much as the next guy but u NEED the third party titles that sell units.
3. Graphics and hardware. Stop kidding yourselfs saying sony and msoft ain't your competition yes they are! Release a power beast of a system with an amazing online capability (so u get exclusive indie titles) bc that's all the big companies cars for when they develop games. Who has the best hardware for me to create my vision not how do I integrate this gimmicky game pad.
4. Stop relying on first party so much/give third party developers the tricks and tools they need to make their games as good as first party.
5. Stop coasting off wii sucess. It was faux success anyway. Yes money in the bank talks but it wasn't from gamers it was from soccer moms and old folks as pointed out by the lack luster library. Statistically ( weather fans like it or not) Microsoft won last gen acording to sales (with gamers) wii printed money no doubt but .....where was the library of must haves? I got em for my playstation and xbox but I had like.....zelda and mario and no more heros and.........
I'm a gamer from the 80s and hate seeing the big N suffer (at the end of the day gaming is just a small part of sony and Microsofts company and they could bow out any time technically) but nintendo is all gaming. Hope ppl don't lose jobs over this news.

[sephx22]

I'll be watching those holiday sales closely.

[cherbhy]

And I quote: "'One game has the power to change everything,' Mr. Iwata said, smiling often."

[CAB1802theWiiUdefend]

I'm tired of defending the Wii U, Seriously, I don't see the Wii U having a huge comeback in saleswise, I'm sure the Super Mario 3D World will help sales. But, I don't think that PS4 and Xbox One is gonna to kill the Wii U