Nintendo Financials
- Thread starter Trawler
- Start date
They are profitable :| Its not like they are losing billions.
And you need to consider a new HW launch and expansive R&D on a new console (and most likely a new handheld) you can see why to some extent. There is no question Nintendo is struggling compared to their own standards. No one is denying that. The problem is you only ever see the negative.
Predicting the Revolution flop without knowing a single thing about is a little premature.
And you need to consider a new HW launch and expansive R&D on a new console (and most likely a new handheld) you can see why to some extent. There is no question Nintendo is struggling compared to their own standards. No one is denying that. The problem is you only ever see the negative.
Predicting the Revolution flop without knowing a single thing about is a little premature.
GwymWeepa said:
Maybe I am missing something in your comment, but I am not aware of the GCN losing billions... I actually thought Nintendo has made some money on the GCN. They do not lose money on HW and have had some games sell well. I am not saying the GCN is a success (although I think it has been a marginal one... definately not what Nintendo had hoped for, but it also has sold a almost 20M units which means they are still relevant imo).
Oh, ok 
It is late, I was just confused. Sarcasm can be hard to read on the net at times. I agree with what you are saying
This is not directed at you, but I do find this ironic. The funny thing is I could care less if MS has lost money with the Xbox--as a consumer as long as the maker plans to support it through its lifetime then why should we care? If Sony loses $1 total net over the lifetime of the PS3, but sells 60M units and is able to make the PS4 is it a failure? If MS losing $3B with Xenon and looks to lose a couple more Billion with the next console and is losing the living room then I would be concerned, but as a consumer as long as MS supports the platform and does not drop it (like Sega did so many times) then who cares if MS loses money? Almost 20M consoles is not a failure when you are looking to break into a competive market. When you consider the hurdles MS had to face (expensive HW that was they were not able to reduce cost on significantly, no killer apps, no backwards compatiblity, not known for games and had/have a negative vibe among many) I am actually impressed with what MS did. Losing money on the HW was a calculated risk that forgot some variables. But MS has now won the trust of a lot of gamers, has established some killer franchises, has built a very good online service, and has XNA is bolster their software releases. MS goes into the next gen with Xenon as a very viable game maker, whereas with Xbox they were a total unknown with a PC dressed up as a console. With their HW design they have shown they are willing to learn from their mistakes. Xbox has lost money, but it also has not been a flop. I am actually surpised to see 1 80M console and 2 ~20M on the market... but then again the game support for the GCN (which I own) is a little depressing at times. Oh well, end of rant (hahaha only because I am posting another rant in a new thread!)
It is late, I was just confused. Sarcasm can be hard to read on the net at times. I agree with what you are saying This is not directed at you, but I do find this ironic. The funny thing is I could care less if MS has lost money with the Xbox--as a consumer as long as the maker plans to support it through its lifetime then why should we care? If Sony loses $1 total net over the lifetime of the PS3, but sells 60M units and is able to make the PS4 is it a failure? If MS losing $3B with Xenon and looks to lose a couple more Billion with the next console and is losing the living room then I would be concerned, but as a consumer as long as MS supports the platform and does not drop it (like Sega did so many times) then who cares if MS loses money? Almost 20M consoles is not a failure when you are looking to break into a competive market. When you consider the hurdles MS had to face (expensive HW that was they were not able to reduce cost on significantly, no killer apps, no backwards compatiblity, not known for games and had/have a negative vibe among many) I am actually impressed with what MS did. Losing money on the HW was a calculated risk that forgot some variables. But MS has now won the trust of a lot of gamers, has established some killer franchises, has built a very good online service, and has XNA is bolster their software releases. MS goes into the next gen with Xenon as a very viable game maker, whereas with Xbox they were a total unknown with a PC dressed up as a console. With their HW design they have shown they are willing to learn from their mistakes. Xbox has lost money, but it also has not been a flop. I am actually surpised to see 1 80M console and 2 ~20M on the market... but then again the game support for the GCN (which I own) is a little depressing at times. Oh well, end of rant (hahaha only because I am posting another rant in a new thread!)
Acert93 said:Oh, ok
This is not directed at you, but I do find this ironic. The funny thing is I could care less if MS has lost money with the Xbox--as a consumer as long as the maker plans to support it through its lifetime then why should we care? If Sony loses $1 total net over the lifetime of the PS3, but sells 60M units and is able to make the PS4 is it a failure? If MS losing $3B with Xenon and looks to lose a couple more Billion with the next console and is losing the living room then I would be concerned, but as a consumer as long as MS supports the platform and does not drop it (like Sega did so many times) then who cares if MS loses money? Almost 20M consoles is not a failure when you are looking to break into a competive market. When you consider the hurdles MS had to face (expensive HW that was they were not able to reduce cost on significantly, no killer apps, no backwards compatiblity, not known for games and had/have a negative vibe among many) I am actually impressed with what MS did. Losing money on the HW was a calculated risk that forgot some variables. But MS has now won the trust of a lot of gamers, has established some killer franchises, has built a very good online service, and has XNA is bolster their software releases. MS goes into the next gen with Xenon as a very viable game maker, whereas with Xbox they were a total unknown with a PC dressed up as a console. With their HW design they have shown they are willing to learn from their mistakes. Xbox has lost money, but it also has not been a flop. I am actually surpised to see 1 80M console and 2 ~20M on the market... but then again the game support for the GCN (which I own) is a little depressing at times. Oh well, end of rant (hahaha only because I am posting another rant in a new thread!)
MS is willing to lose money, so arguably its not a failure, Nintendo likes to make money, and tends to do so, but its considered by many to be a failure.
The operating income forecast for the entire year is now exactly the same for Nintendo and Sony at 110 billion Yen. $7.45 billion in cash as of December 31st. Software sales were up on last year (Y 184,011m vs Y 180,574m for the nine months) whereas hardware sales went down (Y 233,674m vs Y 257,067m for last years first nine months). Not looking good? Some DS titles were pushed back/delayed into the next fiscal year, which Nintendo wasn't anticipating. I don't want to explain how the weak dollar-to-strong yen affected the profit projections as well. Almost $700 million dollars in operating profits, yet some of you would liken them to Sega. Btw, EA's projected profits were somewhere around $300 million iirc.
Acert93:
> If Sony loses $1 total net over the lifetime of the PS3, but sells 60M
> units and is able to make the PS4 is it a failure?
Well, perhaps not a dollar but a business exists to make money. And a business can't keep losing money forever.
If you care about a product you should want to the company behind it do well. Marketshare is great but the bottomline is the bottomline.
> If Sony loses $1 total net over the lifetime of the PS3, but sells 60M
> units and is able to make the PS4 is it a failure?
Well, perhaps not a dollar but a business exists to make money. And a business can't keep losing money forever.
If you care about a product you should want to the company behind it do well. Marketshare is great but the bottomline is the bottomline.
I agree they should do that. But I think Nintendo are just extremely wary of looking like they are unprofitable. Who can blame them though with the incredibly negative coverage they get from the industry at large. Look at what they get now while consistently making large profits. Can you imagine the crap they'd get from the media and MS/Sony fan-boys if they actually made a few quarterly losses due to buying games and game studios?
Johnny Awesome
Veteran
Nintendo is a conservative company. IMO the Gamecube is a wash financially (maybe a slight profit over the life of the console), but they rake in money in the hand-held space. I think the reason the media gives Nintendo a hard time in the console market is because there is a perception that they are losing marketshare (very true) and that they are not making almost any money on the Gamecube (uncertain).
It's quite possible that internally Nintendo is fine with the Gamecube just breaking even as long as it keeps their name out there for branding purposes. This helps them in the hand-held market. I'm sure they want to do better, but as long as they make a small profit on Cube they can keep retail space for GBA and DS. They don't want to just get marginalized as a hand-held player, especially with Sony coming on strong with the PSP.
It's quite possible that internally Nintendo is fine with the Gamecube just breaking even as long as it keeps their name out there for branding purposes. This helps them in the hand-held market. I'm sure they want to do better, but as long as they make a small profit on Cube they can keep retail space for GBA and DS. They don't want to just get marginalized as a hand-held player, especially with Sony coming on strong with the PSP.
Ty
I don't want to hunt around for specific articles or forum threads But I think its pretty well known that Nintendo often gets the short end of the stick on financial reports. I mean look at the last time Nintendo made a loss in a single quarter. Barely any of the articles at the time explained that the only reason they made a loss was due to currency conversion rates (they had a $400 million exchange rate bill which gave them the 20 million or so quaterly loss). Or that they in fact made a bigger profit (pre exchange rate fluctuations) then the previous profitable quarter. It was just "Nintendo is teh doomed!!!111" all round.
I don't want to hunt around for specific articles or forum threads
But I think its pretty well known that Nintendo often gets the short end of the stick on financial reports. I mean look at the last time Nintendo made a loss in a single quarter. Barely any of the articles at the time explained that the only reason they made a loss was due to currency conversion rates (they had a $400 million exchange rate bill which gave them the 20 million or so quaterly loss). Or that they in fact made a bigger profit (pre exchange rate fluctuations) then the previous profitable quarter. It was just "Nintendo is teh doomed!!!111" all round.Johnny
I think if Nintendo could spend lots of money and get some quick results coming from that then that would be fine. As that could change the perception amongst the media. So even if they didn't make much money at the time the media would be saying "they didn't make much money this quarter but look they're selling loads of consoles and have lots of good exclusive games". But the problem is really with the transition between spending the money on these exclusive games and studios and seeing some kind of success coming from it. In that time Nintendo could get absolutely slated by the media.
BTW you make a very good point in the last paragraph of you're post (although I still think GC does more then break even). That's something I always think of when people advocate Nintendo losing the console market to focus on handhelds.
I think if Nintendo could spend lots of money and get some quick results coming from that then that would be fine. As that could change the perception amongst the media. So even if they didn't make much money at the time the media would be saying "they didn't make much money this quarter but look they're selling loads of consoles and have lots of good exclusive games". But the problem is really with the transition between spending the money on these exclusive games and studios and seeing some kind of success coming from it. In that time Nintendo could get absolutely slated by the media.
BTW you make a very good point in the last paragraph of you're post (although I still think GC does more then break even). That's something I always think of when people advocate Nintendo losing the console market to focus on handhelds.
