Nintendo Is Hurting :(

[corn619]

I'll put it right out there first, Nintendo is not in trouble. This thing is being amplified by every wannabe journalist doing a Nintendo is doomed article. They were all saying the same crap when the 3DS was having sales issues. Look at the 3DS now, with all the smartphones and tablets on the market, Nintendo's little console that couldn't is doing pretty damned good all things considered.

A number of things led Nintendo to this current dilemma. They launched the console too early.....yet again. They learned absolutely nothing from the 3DS launch. They launched a console again with limited working features and no must have games. A year later the games are coming and the promised features are working but, the excitement of a new console launch has long staled.

I think the Wii-U will eventually be ok much like the 3DS. It'll be cheaper for Nintendo to make as time goes on. Obviously its price will drop again and people won't be afraid to make a spontaneous purchase because of the awesome list games available. Everyone had he doom and gloom forecast about the 3DS last year too.

Nintendo would be doing itself a favor by I don't know, marketing the console effectively. It has a lot of things the other consoles don't having commercials that show this would I think be tremendously helpful. Also, They've yet to release that must have game that really showcases the features of the console.

I'll never forget playing Kirby's Canvas Curse for the first time at GameStop when it first released. I didn't 'get' the DS until this game and bought one 2 days later thanks to Kirby. That is what I think Nintendo needs. Right now the tablet on the Wii-U is thought of as a accessory instead of a integral part of the gaming experience.

[BurningDoom]

^ Their woes are more than just journalists saying such, at this point. Nintendo has come out and said sales were MUCH lower than excepted. The word "underwhelming" was used by Nintendo.

Nintendo also said they are starting to explore their options with smart phones and online networks, as well.

[Beak]

I'll put it right out there first, Nintendo is not in trouble.

Journalists are merely responding to the fact that this is the 3rd year in a row Nintendo has operated on a loss, among other things--not some sort of vendetta. No one's claiming they're sinking, just that they've drifted into deeper waters.

[corn619]

^ Their woes are more than just journalists saying such, at this point. Nintendo has come out and said sales were MUCH lower than excepted. The word "underwhelming" was used by Nintendo.

Nintendo also said they are starting to explore their options with smart phones and online networks, as well.

Regarding smartphone options Iwata is quoted in saying this today. "The spread of smart devices does not spell the end of game consoles. It's not that simple," he said (as translated by Wall Street Journal). "It doesn't mean that we should put Mario on smartphones."

There's a lot of people saying they should port some of Nintendo's classics to smartphones. I personally don't think giving great, timeless classics crappy smartphone ports is the answer and will only hurt them in the long run. Not to mention cannibalize 3DS sales as well.

I'm sure there's going to be some sort of Nintendo app in the future like the Pokemon app, but what kind of app it will be is anyones guess. My guess is a app that will be able to be linked somehow to games you can play on 3DS.

Yes sales are currently underwhelming and of course journalists are going to report on that. That is not what I was talking about. I was talking about the speculative articles full of bad information like these piles of journalistic poo. There's a ton more on the web, but here is a taste.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-1 ... -flop.html

http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/17/wii-u-not-selling/

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/tech ... siness.ece

http://www.nerdacy.com/2014/01/20/ninte ... -hardware/

http://www.dualshockers.com/2014/01/20/ ... s-a-wii-u/

I'll put it right out there first, Nintendo is not in trouble.

Journalists are merely responding to the fact that this is the 3rd year in a row Nintendo has operated on a loss, among other things--not some sort of vendetta. No one's claiming they're sinking, just that they've drifted into deeper waters.

Some of the articles I've read in the last few weeks are just pure crap though. You'd think after reading some of these toilet worthy articles Nintendo is weeks away from closing the doors to its hardware days.

Obviously not true. Don't get me wrong, I've read some great articles about Nintendo as of late too. Well written articles with informed opinions based on factual information always make for a good read. Its just the stories based on pure speculation that are kind of nauseating to read after a while.

[Reprise]

I think that is the main problem is that people do not know that the Wii U is a whole new system. My sister, who isn't a "hardcore gamer" (hate that term) as she doesn't follow up on any news on games except E3 but is typically in the know had no clue the Wii U was a new system and she thought the Wii U was only the tablet that connects to the Wii. She didn't know this until Christmas last year when I got a Wii U. She knows what a PS4 & Xbox
One is and I think this is at least the number one problem.

Nobody outside of gaming know what a Wii U is, the ads they have for it are confusing as it only shows the tablet part. It has been only recently that they have said it is a new console and even that isn't really spelled out about it. I don't watch TV that much but I've only seen the ads during reruns of 60s TV shows and when watching The Late Show since that is the only TV I watch outside of Sunday Night on Fox (the animation line up).

I'd agree with this. Even those who understood the Wii U was a new console were still confused by it. Before it came out, my girlfriend and I pre-ordered it, but she only did so because I had to explain everything to her. Based purely on the direction, marketing and information available at the time, my girlfriend would not have bought it if it was not for me. She just did not get the console at all. "So it's just a tablet thing now instead of motion controls?" "Why does it use wii remotes and nunchuks as well then?" "Well what's the pro controller for then? Why do we need that?" were questions she would ask, along with hundreds more.

Once we got it, she loved it and still does. But if it wasn't for me and if she was single, she probably wouldn't own one, nor would she care to.

Like I said before, there was just no real focus, no clear direction, Nintendo were trying to appeal to too many crowds.

[CavZee]

One point that I think Nintendo didn't push enough with the Wii and Wii U is the fact that they were both physically backwards compatible with their predecessor. Thats a huge selling point to me and I've never seen them really promote that information in their ads.

I'm not quite sure backwards compatibility is a major concern for most people. It's a nice addition and it certainly would be a nice bonus for someone who missed out on the Wii but well, most people had one or still do (in their closet).

[Gunstar Green]

Yeah, forget people not knowing about backwards compatibility, I think a lot of people didn't know the Wii U wasn't just the Wii with a U on the end.

I don't keep up with modern gaming news very much admittedly and I embarrassingly didn't even know the Wii U was a new console until it was almost released. That's how much I paid attention. Still if it slipped past me as a gamer, even just a fair-weather one when it comes to modern games, it certainly slipped past a lot of the general public.

[CavZee]

Financially, they have money to fall back on. The issue is this situation with the Wii U flopping and decreasing sales for handheld systems has raised eyebrows everywhere and everyone wants to see where Nintendo goes from here. If they dont bring a strong plan for success than they risk falling into irrelevancy. If that happens, then the financial losses will really start to pile up.

Anyway, that's all I've got to add on the subject.

[FiftyDollarCurse]

It does not matter how successful a company has been in the past, they are all susceptible to failure if they don't evolve with their industry. Look at RIM (The Blackberry), Gateway (desktop computers) or Blockbuster (movie rentals). These are all companies that dominated in their field and were making money hand over fist and they all went down in very short order when the needs and wants of their customers changed and they failed to (or refused to) change with them. Nintendo is not unique and it is not immune.

Nintendo may not be in dire peril right now, but unless something changes, in ten years we might be reading about the first few decisions that marked a turning point for them.

[Reprise]

If you want a good example, look at Nokia.