A cornered beast will fight: Why you shouldn’t underestimate Nintendo

mii-gamer:

My issue with the media and the community– is how quickly they are willing to write off the Wii U and Nintendo in general. Excuse me for my lack of better words – but yes, Nintendo greatly screwed up the Wii U’s fist year in the market – there are no ways to put a positive spin on it. It was an accumulation of mistake after the mistake that ultimately lead to the snail pail momentum of this fantastic console. However, let’s not go crazy here by calling this the death of Nintendo, that suddenly Nintendo has become irrelevant in the industry or suggest insanely stupid moves like becoming a software only company or ditching the Wii U entirely for a console that can compete with the PS4/One (spec wise).

[Gazondaily]

But will it fight itself out of the corner or put up a fight until it bleeds to death in that very corner?

[Yep]

That sounds more like Sony than Nintendo.

Putting up a fight with it's gaming division, but it's not enough to keep them from incurring losses. Nintendo, on the other hand, did make a profit.

[Riderz1337]

Sony made a profit this quarter, specifically due to their gaming divison.

Also, Sony's game division had a higher profit than Nintendo's game divison.

So, your argument is invalid.

[light69]

@Riderz1337
but it did make a profit.... so how is his argument invalid troll

[torchic]

@humanafterall

$1.1bn loss is the expected for FY2013, while they made an operating profit for Q32013.

not understanding economics is perfectly acceptable however no excuses can be made for incorrect reading.

lol @ disagrees love when facts get voted down.

[Riderz1337]

@Human - Fiscal year = loss
Last quarter = profit

I said they profited in the quarter, so why the hell are you showing me fiscal year?

[BitbyDeath]

"Sony just announced its financial results for the quarter ended on December 31st, 2013, and as opposed to what many expected they actually are in the black."

http://www.dualshockers.com...

Riderz is right. Yes they lost money over the fiscal year but if you were to just look at the 3rd quarter (the latest quarter) they made a profit. Now let's see if they can keep profiting in the next quarter as well.

On topic: Nintendo needs to make some changes, at the moment they seem to be doing nothing of great impact thus far. Hopefully they will soon unleash. No Nintendo in gaming will be a sad day for gaming.

[Gemmol]

The guy is right if you look at the article he posted, and put away the sony eyes the article say "Sony is now heading for its fifth net loss within six years. The profit recorded in the year ended March 2013, Hirai's first in charge, was helped by the sale of two landmark properties in New York and Tokyo." so it seems the only reason they made profit was from selling those buildings, if they did not the losses would be higher. I guess you have to give Nintendo props although it seems they doing bad because of bad press they never let anyone go and still bought new buildings, so it seems they really got some big cash. I wonder if they can let me borrow some.

[torchic]

FY2013 means the freaking financial year! Sony expect a $1,1bn loss for the financial year, however recorded a profit for the quarter! you implied that the $1.1bn loss is for Q32013 while it was actually for FY2013!

omg wow so many dumb dumbs! you ought to be ashamed of yourself @humanafterall might as well delete your account!

[Thatguy-310]

It's funny how people bring up the whole company where this is only talking gaming related. Yea Sony is doing bad as a whole but we're on a gaming site where we're looking at the gaming division for each of the company. Wii U is doing bad, Vita is doing bad, PS4 is obliterating the console competition. That simple. No reason to bring in other factors to justify your reasoning.

[Realplaya]

You bring up the Wii U when the 3ds is killing it.
The PS3 just started getting money and the PS4 is ok for now. But yep if Nintendo the company is in trouble then Sony as a company is in big doodoo.

[RackLug]

1080p COD is not gonna do it either, the other big 2 are doing nothin spectacular the ps4 has not even a proper race game out yet.

[solidsheep]

Then what are they doing better then Nintendo? They are gonna pass WiiU in less then a year. They must be doing something right that Nintendo isn't.

[BoneBone]

A dudebro and his money are soon parted.

[thezeldadoth]

suddenly high sales mean you're making good products? I guess you love COD and Apple

[solidsheep]

@BoneBone
A "dudebro" is no less a gamer then you, or any other on this site that calls them selves a hardcore gamer.

Video games are just form of entertainment. Quit acting like your some hot sh*t because you choose to hate on COD or other mainstream games.

[solidsheep]

@thezeldadoth

Just because I put effort into making an informed decision when it comes tech, cars, movies and other aspects of life. Does not entitle me to belittle other people and their decisions.

If people wanna like COD and Apple products who are we to tell them what they should like.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

They're riding off of launch hype and blowing the difference in system specs way out of proportion.
All that power, and we haven't seen anything that plays in truly brand-new ways.
Better graphics. That's pretty much Sony's pitch, and it just so happens that that's a popular choice amongst most console gamers right now, so it sells well.
Launch hype won't last forever with a system that's $400+.[the + is due to PS+ subscription and an extra game or two, on top of taxes, an extended warrantee[which you'll want due to all the issues it seems to be having] a Vita for off-TV play and other stuff. It's more expensive than you think.]

[solidsheep]

@Wonder
I'm not here to judge a penis measuring contest between Ps4 and Xbox1. They are both great systems that are gonna do just fine.

I just wanted have open discussion on how Nintendo could better their console.

[madjedi]

@solid It was a nice try, but having an open discussion on n4g is likely impossible, especially when fans are backed into a corner.

Lol at nintendo being a cornered beast, they are nearly 8 yrs behind on many standard gaming features/trends.

Why should sony or ms be afraid to "fight" nintendo, they lack third party titles and are obsessed with relying upon nostalgia of old characters to sell system.

So if the xbone and ps4 are selling solely of the hype and better graphics, why is the wii u that has a yrs worth of library build up still selling like shit.

I do love the bullshit from elitism nintendo fans, if cod @1080p Isn't going to cut it, why would Cranky Kong @720p be any better.

I have seen exactly 1 thing i would consider spectacular from nintendo, and that was the vaporware zelda tech demo from e3 2010.

As for everything else basically prettier wii games, so yes equally unspectacular output.

Right unfortunately nintendo is more like a cornered rabbit than a cornered bear or wolverine, so i wouldn't expect much fight if any.

[BoneBone]

Dude, you just said dudebros' are people too, lol.

[RackLug]

They cant even run B4F at 1080p, 60FPS were will they be in 3 years?

My pc graphics card costs £70 used and BF4 wipes the floor with ps4 version running on it

[RPG_Lover]

Nintendo is doing better than sony and we still have to deal with this shitty article.

[SteamPowered]

Nintendo is doing better overall and with the Handheld market, but straight up PS4 vs Wii U.....Playstation takes that one.

[RPG_Lover]

So? 1 product doesnt make the company;

[SteamPowered]

@elemental
I wasn't saying One area equals domination of the market. I was just saying Nintendo and Sony are both doing well.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Yeah, true, Sony's still riding the launch wave for better profits, but history should tell us that that won't last forever.
Plus, there's still all of the company's other branches slowly bleeding them out of profits...

If Sony were strictly gaming, I'd completely agree with people who say Sony is winning, but they've got some issues they need to either solve or cut ties with.

[KonsoruMasuta]

I came here for the thumbnail. Lol, I laughed so hard. I can't look at it without chuckling.

On topic: I do agree with the article though.

[Dropdeadll]

lol at the pic

[STK026]

One thing we must all remember is that Nintendo still has plenty of cash, and, if needed, could go and buy some major studios or IPs to boost its first party offerings. It also allows them to have the Wii-U fail, as they can survive long enough to prepare themselves for the next generation of home consoles, and their next handheld device.

Another thing to remember is that Nintendo still has a lot of brand recognition, well known franchises and a successful handheld on the market; counting them out at the moment is just stupid.

[Veneno]

Another thing to remember is that N64 and Gamecube didn't do so hot. the Wii was a total casual fluke. and Wii U is continuing the downward trend from before.

[kB0]

Deja Vu month.

I can't wait till the next Wii.U is doomed/Wii.U is not doomed article.

Can N4G start putting up a calendar for these articles?

[ajax17]

That picture made my day, lol

[Minute Man 721]

Nintendont is finished, just stick to handhelds

[Kingoftherodeo]

nintendo is gonna either continue with the wiiu and bleed money an eventually become a 3rd party game developer or just sell the company. but they could also go all out hail marry and bust out a new spanking console in a couple of years that will be a step from ps4 tech wise. they would still lack the online infrastructure to compete with sony not to mention microsoft. nintendo right now is depressed they don't know if they should mop around or get their shit together

[RPG_Lover]

If sony can lose 1 billion dollars, 10+ years of losses.

Nintendo can survive 2 with the top product on the market.

[Brucis]

"nintendo is gonna either continue with the wiiu and bleed money an eventually become a 3rd party game developer or just sell the company." lolno

Do you have any idea how much money Nintendo has? Last I checked they could keep this up for 40+ years and still not be bankrupt.

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Hate to break it to you, bub, but the Wii U's profit losses aren't nearly enough to make Nintendo bleed themselves into going third party or dropping it early.

You should also do some research on how badly Sony is bleeding out before you try to pin that kind of doom&gloom on Nintendo; PS4 isn't doing enough to get Sony back into the black books. It'd take another 3 or 4 years of this kind of continuous profits off of the machine, and that's just not gonna happen. Sony will need to drop the price eventually, because $400+ is way too much for a system that just does graphics better.

[thezeldadoth]

its sad that people bash the wii u without owning one. Its such a refreshing console and feels like more than just a more powerful version of the previous one. I thoroughly enjoy gaming on it. "Gamers" will continue to hate innovation, and then complain about getting COD 12. "gamers" are causing stagnation in the industry just to satisfy their brand worship. Have fun with the next super cool third person shooter while others are enjoying great games like X.

[RosweeSon]

Sony have barely had to fight in this industry up until ps3 so I don't know where that's come from both the ps1 and ps2 shifted well over 100 million consoles each no console in nintendo's entire history had ever done that until the wii, which came off the back of the massively (yeah right) selling GameCube, what about 20 million worldwide people said that's them done for consoles and they go and release a wii one of their most successful ever, struggling with the wii I granted but happy with mine I was happy with my launch day 3ds during all the horror stories and look at them now, I'll buy anything that is exciting or fun, sony and nintendo are fine Microsoft are bland at best at the moment, but if any gaming company has ever had to fight first off it would be sega (nearly lost them completely) and then nintendo seemed to be going that way, somehow I think they'll have some reserves left over from the wii success, but seriously sony struggle... Hardly 80 million consoles with the ps3 is their worst selling console (handhelds excluded) yeah it hard a grim 4-5 years start but nowadays with ps+ it's one of the hottest consoles going excluding next/ new gen which has barely struggled. Fingers crossed Microsoft will go back to the original days of struggling might look after their customers a bit better ;)

[Realplaya]

I find it funny that Nintendo loses millions the world goes crazy. In the same time Sony loses billions not a peep.
Ok we get it Nintendo had a rough first year. But lets look at what could happen.

They have a second year with the system.
They have better looking performing games coming out in year 2.
They learned that Buzz can be a bad thing, So they will market better.

Look at this report from Sony.

Sony has announced that for the fiscal year ending on March 31st, 2014, the firm is expecting a loss of $1.1 billion. Sony CEO Kazuo Hairai will be cutting another 5,000 jobs, as he restructures the companies Vaio PC and Television business.

Bloomberg is reporting that Sony’s TV and Vaio PC business is causing serious losses for the firm. Add into that R&D costs of the PS4 and struggles of the PS Vita in the market, and that paints the picture of why Sony is charting this much of a loss on their forecast.

More details and analysis can be found on Bloomberg.

[RosweeSon]

But yes I have a wii u a ps3/4 vita and a 3ds plus a soon to be retired Xbox 360 now that the golds ran out but if you have a soul and like fun the wii u is a great little console and will get there with mario kart and smash bros soon bayonetta 2 and a few others it's not as doom and gloomy as most make it out to be (people without one no doubt and are too cool for school)
Granted the original wii was pretty poor apart from the major nintendo games, but for every classic like metroid, smash bros mario galaxy 1 or 2 you had about 20-30 crap puzzle games dance games, farming simulators and other absolute rubbish, bound to put people off upgrading but I have loved every minute of my wii u, granted its not super quick and I can't tea bag peach but I don't mind a bit of colour, the day I stop buying nintendo is when they make a photo realistic mario played by son fat Italian plumber or maybe bob Hoskins again, some games aren't meant for relealism I think it's safe to say I don't wanna see Mario's builders bum and even tho I'm 27 I'm happy with a bit of colour in my games when they are this darn good, I guess no adults lower themselves to watch the simpsons or a those crappy Pixar films ( sarcasm for sure ) all I know is your missing out. Shame.

[RosweeSon]

It's not all about headshots and hookers!

[DC777]

Just enjoy your console. Nintendo will probably come out swinging at some point.