How long can Nintendo continue to hemorrhage money?

[ßringer]

Have you seen their sales figures lately? Or what their stock is worth now?

Ridiculous.

They really shot themselves in the face when they decided to abandon their core fanbase in pursuit of a larger fanbase of (unstable) casual gamers with the invention of the Wii. They again shot themselves in the face when they decided to continue chasing that unstable audience with the devolpment of the severely underpowered Wii U. They again shot themselves in the face when they decided to continue investing in handheld consoles which have been rendered obsolete by mobile and tablet gaming.

Microsoft and Sony are literally eating Nintendo's lunch right now, and I expect that problem to only worsen when the lack of Wii U exclusives continues throughout this year, culminating with the release of the PS4 and the likely launch of the next Xbox this holiday season.

So how long can this go on for?

How long can Nintendo continue to lose out on both the console front as well as the handheld front before they end up relegated to a third-party devolper publishing titles for the companies that put them out of business ala SEGA?

[Biolink]

3DS has sold really well globally. Otherwise I agree for the most part.

[-Kev-]

I have the 3DS, I will continue to buy Nintendo handhelds in the future. I don't know if I can say the same for Playstation. Looks like i'm skipping out on getting it for a couple of years and instead will invest in a super powered gaming PC.

[-Kev-]

Ironically Sony is calling the PS4 a super charged PC. That's pretty funny, having the specs of the average mid range gaming PC.

[-Kev-]

PC gaming was my past, back when I was 10-13 years old, but I didn't know much about it. Now 10 years later i'm gaining interest again in the PC gaming world.

[Earl-Hickey]

I used to be a big nintendo mark back in the day.

Zelda was my bread and butter, but since the days of the N64, nintendo has made mind boggling decisions.

N64 had some of the best games ever

Zelda OOT
Zelda MM
Perfect Dark
Goldeneye
Banjo Kazooie and tooie
Mario 64
Mario Kart
Paper Mario

but it didn't sell as well as PS1 because they stuck with cartridges instead of CD rom, to think that the N64 could have had final fantasy 7 as another exclusive if they switched to discs, it would have been the G.O.A.T console. They also lost I believe Resident evil and other games because of this.

Next up was the Gamecube, once again I stuck with nintendo, and once again they made a faux par. Instead of offering DVD compatibility they went with these mini-dvd discs that meant you could only play games on the console and not movies and music like XBOX and PS2, how that made sense is unknown. Gamecube still had some great games, Metroid and Zelda but it had less than the N64

I bailed when Nintendo released the wii, no way, I was playing oblivion and gears of war on my new 360 and I haven't looked back.

I might pick up a cheap wii as I have to play skyward Sword, but wii u doesn't interest me.

TBH I would rather nintendo did get out of the console market, and Zelda, mario and metroid were on xbox and playstation, that way nintendo can just concentrate on AAA first party titles which more gamers would get to play.

[Bushbaby]

Is that right. I haven't seen the figures in about 3 years but when I did see them, Nintendo owned 70% of the entire gaming market.

Microsoft owned 20

Sony owned 10

[ßringer]

Is that right. I haven't seen the figures in about 3 years but when I did see them, Nintendo owned 70% of the entire gaming market.

Microsoft owned 20

Sony owned 10

Those are just the most recent articles on the sales figures for the Wii U : Overall, Nintendo sales have been down overall in the past several months.

[ßringer]

I used to be a big nintendo mark back in the day.

Zelda was my bread and butter, but since the days of the N64, nintendo has made mind boggling decisions.

N64 had some of the best games ever

Zelda OOT
Zelda MM
Perfect Dark
Goldeneye
Banjo Kazooie and tooie
Mario 64
Mario Kart
Paper Mario

but it didn't sell as well as PS1 because they stuck with cartridges instead of CD rom, to think that the N64 could have had final fantasy 7 as another exclusive if they switched to discs, it would have been the G.O.A.T console. They also lost I believe Resident evil and other games because of this.

Next up was the Gamecube, once again I stuck with nintendo, and once again they made a faux par. Instead of offering DVD compatibility they went with these mini-dvd discs that meant you could only play games on the console and not movies and music like XBOX and PS2, how that made sense is unknown. Gamecube still had some great games, Metroid and Zelda but it had less than the N64

I bailed when Nintendo released the wii, no way, I was playing oblivion and gears of war on my new 360 and I haven't looked back.

I might pick up a cheap wii as I have to play skyward Sword, but wii u doesn't interest me.

TBH I would rather nintendo did get out of the console market, and Zelda, mario and metroid were on xbox and playstation, that way nintendo can just concentrate on AAA first party titles which more gamers would get to play.

As someone else who grew up on Nintendo consoles, I agree.

Nintendo used to be the watermark for the best in console gaming. The NES was the ****, the SNES absolutely obliterated the competition during the 16 bit era, even the N64 managed to churn out some amazing titles which kept intrest in Nintendo on the rise during a period of time when more gamers were interested in what Sony was doing.

The Gamecube is where things started to fall off, though there were some pretty amazing titles in that console's library which warranted a purchase : Both Zelda titles, Super Mario Sunshine, Mario Kart double dash, Eternal Darkness, the RE remake along with RE4 (which was superior to the watered down PS2 port) and RE 0, the MGS remake, etc...

It's kinda depressing to see how far they've fallen in the last decade or so, but at the same time I feel that they deserve it for abandoning their hardcore fanbase who grew up with Nintendo consoles because they felt that adult gamers were a niche market.

I'd buy a Wii for Skyward Sword and that Donkey Kong Country remake, but the price of the console is still too high to warrant a purchase just for a few AAA titles.

At this point, I feel that it's only a matter of time before Nintendo closes up shop on the console front.

[Xyei]

Those are just the most recent articles on the sales figures for the Wii U : Overall, Nintendo sales have been down overall in the past several months.

In this link they say "Nintendo's Dreamcast." Am I missing something or is that just a mistake? Maybe they meant gamecube? Dreamcast was made by Sega.