Nintendo has announced that it expects to lose 20-billion yen (a shade under $264-million) for its fiscal year ending March 2012. Software sales are down, hardware sales are down, and the Japanese yen continues to be one of the strongest currencies in the world, which is bad news for a company that’s dependent on exports and global sales. This will be the first lost since the company started releasing its financial results in 1981.
In some positive news, worldwide sales of the Nintendo 3DS portable console have hit 6.68-million units. Considering its rough start and the fact that many pundits called it a “doomed” system, the sales are impressive. Like I’ve said in the past, I expect 3DS sales to be strong in the long run.
The exchange rate issues will continue to plague Nintendo for some time to come. There’s not much the company can do to counter that factor…outside of relocating the entire company to China and Mexico. Hmmmmm…I’m going to put a pitch together. I think I can convince at least 40 percent of Nintendo of Japan that Cabo San Lucas is where they want to be.
So… they actually MADE money on the Virtual Boy? That's very hard to believe.
Remember… they've lost the console war for 2 gens before the Wii came out. Big N will surely bounce back.
The Virtual Boy was surrounded by other Nintendo products. You know, ones that sold and all.
Don't blame the "strong Yen" as one of the reasons for the loss. I would stick with slumping sales and high costs. As Japanese individuals, a strong Yen benefits savers and preserves their individual purchasing power. It also allows them to buy imports for cheap and keeps the prices of goods and services low. It's true that as an exporter, you'd want the currency that's coming into your country stronger than yours, but big multinational corporations have found a way around this by having security holding companies in the country they are doing business in. That way, their wealth is relative to how well their products or services are doing in that country. The corporate version of the mercantile system does not work in today's global markets.
-M
They listed it as a reason in their financial report.
I always thought that it'd do well after the price went down a bit, and I was right. Like I said, a good release needs three things: 1) A good price. 2) Good software. 3) Uhh…… Pudding?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/com…
They had a nice run but everyone has ups and downs. Nintendo will be fine because of their first party franchises, I can't see them going the way of Sega, at least not in this decade.
Yep. They've got really great 1st-party franchises. Just don't do anything like Metroid: Other M again. EVER. I can imagine Nintendo botching it up and relying too much on their 1st-party software, though.
My wife, who loved the Metroid Prime series, called Metroid: Other M, and I quote, "Samis' trip to the Lilith Faire."
Really? You know Samus has a u, not an i, right? Oh, me and my spelling police… Okay, yeah, it was a joke. I mean, where do they get off giving her a voice NOW but never before? Her lack of voice kinda defined her character (though the "her" part didn't either until you played through the whole thing and found out your awesome-sauce warrior from space was a GIRL).
Yeah see the u and the i are right next to each other on the keyboard, and my right hand sometimes goes numb due to a bulging disc in my neck pinching the nerve that runs down my arm. So I occasionally typo. It happens. ::shrug::