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With Nintendo’s recent financial report and the company’s bungling of the 3DS, a lot of people are saying that Nintendo is doomed. As someone that has covered the company for several console generations, I find this amusing. We’ve come full circle! People were saying that Nintendo was doomed during the N64 and GameCube days, ignoring the heaps of money it was making with its Game Boy products. When the Nintendo DS and Wii were breaking sales records, people were asking, “Can anyone stop Nintendo???” A rough launch, currency exchange issues, and the tail-end of a console’s lifespan have Nintendo doomed (again). Funny how it goes….
One of the byproducts of this gloom-and-doom reporting is that “experts” believe that Nintendo should ditch the hardware business and focus strictly on software. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of how people used to clamor for Apple to get out of the hardware business and just be an outstanding software developer. Yesterday I read an extremely stupid article written by a writer I usually enjoy. TheAppleBlog’s Darrell Etherington wrote:
Nintendo wouldn’t be the first gaming company to stop making hardware and turn its attention entirely to software if it did change its focus to developing for Apple. Sega made the same move back in 2001, based in part on the same kind of mistake that’s causing Nintendo’s headaches today.
That’s one of the dumbest comparisons I’ve read all year. First of all, the financial situations are completely different. Nintendo has always enjoyed great margins on its hardware. Even when it was being outsold by Sega, Sony, and Microsoft, it made strong profits on hardware sales. The company has always had a lot of cash in the bank. Sure, Nintendo is having a down year with a mishandled 3DS launch and the Wii being on its last legs, but how does that compare to Sega, a company that was losing money at the height of the Dreamcast’s popularity?
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Secondly, why would you even mention Sega as a reason for Nintendo to drop hardware and focus on software?!? Sega went from being part of the “big three” companies in console gaming to a middle-of-the-road game publisher. That’s hardly a success story.
I just don’t understand why people are calling for Nintendo to exit the hardware business at this time. Sure, the 3DS will not be as popular as the DS. I sincerely doubt the Wii U will put up the numbers that the Wii did. Having said that, I expect the company to make a lot of money with both products. This talk of Nintendo dropping hardware seems way too premature.
What do you ladies and gents think? Should Nintendo leave the hardware business? Or is that just crazy talk? Do you think Nintendo would develop games for Android and iOS while it still sold consoles? Do you think the admiration Satoru Iwata and Steve Jobs have for each other means anything in business terms? Should Ninten-Do or Ninten-Don’t?!?
No. They'll stay a hardware company. I do think it would benefit them to partner with some form of phone manufacturer though.
Can we even call these things phones still?
You think one of the last "insanely great" surprises from Jobs will be a Nintendo partnership? That would be cool, but I'm not sure how likely. Then again, those guys love each other….
I'd see it as Android being the more likely choice. I can't imagine Nintendo associating themselves without hardware input.Just a thought though.Sent from my iPhone 4
You mean partnering with Google or an Android phone maker? I don't think Nintendo and Google are culturally compatible. Apple is one of the few American companies I can see Nintendo working with in a big way.
Phone manufacturers…I'm not sure about. That requires much more thought. Definitely not a Korean company. I can't think of a Japanese phone maker aside from Sony-Ericsson that has a large global presence.
Yes a manufacturer. I think Apple and Nintendo are too alike to do that kind of business. They both demand lots of control. Those kinds of compromises are generally harder to come by. I think they would be more likely to get what they want from a different manufacturer.Sent from my iPhone 4
I take back what I said about fearing the Saints run game. I just realized that Mark Ingram won the Heisman trophy and 99.9% of Heisman winners are busts. That trophy is a curse.
While more often than not yes…there are notable exceptions to the curse. I think Ingram is gonna be great. Maybe not AP great. We'll seeSent from my iPhone 4
Agreed. I think this is foolish as well. If you've been gaming for a long time like me then you will know that every gaming generation is different. Nintendo was top, then Sony came and took the top spot, and then Nintendo took the top spot again. What I've gathered is that the 3rd generation of consoles is the worst all companies do.
NES………domination
SNES………domination
N64………dominated by PS1
SEGA………decent
Saturn………decent
Dreamcast………out of business
PS1……………dominated
PS2…………..dominated
PS3…………..last place in market share
Xbox………….second place in market share
Xbox 360……..second place in market share
Nextbox…………..
My prediction for next gen: I don't think the WiiU will catch on nowhere close to what the Wii did. I don't see "casual" spending a few hundred dollars on a new system. With MS seeming putting 99.9% of their focus on Kinect will definitely hurt them in the long run. The core gamers are what made MS the success that they are today and they won't be buying the Nextbox if it's mostly Kinect shovelware games that are available. MS's exclusives have all but dried up and with Halo now in the hands of a new and unproven dev it doesn't look promising. Add to that the fact that most people will think twice about buying the Nextbox at launch for obvious reasons. I believe the PS4 will be the top console of next gen and here's why. Sony has always been about core games, core games, and more core games. Sony adopted Move but it's just an option to play games with. They are not forcing it down our throats. They have been humbled this gen by Nintendo and MS and have learn from their mistakes this gen. There will be no more $600 console this time, which would have killed any other company. We know with Sony we will get a varied array of games. With Nintendo we know it will be gimmick after gimmick from now on and with MS we will get Kinect and the occasional Halo and Gears.
I think it would be a disgrace for Nintendo to lower itself to only a software company, and to work with Apple or Android only. The way I see it, Nintendo is trying to distance themselves from at least Apple since they have the DS and 3DS lines going. Sure Nintendo might not be at its height right now but I would agree there is no reason to believe that Nintendo won't hang on and still make tons of money.
It is getting rather old to hear this argument, I thought this phase passed shortly after the 3S launched and started spouting off this argument; apparently I was wrong.
I love how people are claiming the 3DS is a miss launch. To me, console launches are determined after the holiday sales. Nintendo hasn't even seen what the 3DS can do yet and they just drop the price for the holidays season. Sales are about to go way up and contradict a lot of these "experts" expectations.