How long can Nintendo continue to hemorrhage money?

[ßringer]

Nintendo has money in teh bank, they'll be alright.

This is what I keep hearing from their user base, and surely they have some of the deepest pockets in the entertainment industry, but SEGA did too once upon a time. All it takes is the right combination of failed hardware and questionable business decisions (which Nintendo has in spades right now) to sink an otherwise successful company in this highly competitive and cut-throat market.

[-Hyperion-]

Nintendo was profitable even in the GameCube days....If Wii-U bombs, they'll rescale their expectations and assume a new model to be profitable once again....they're not a mega corporation that bleeds in all fronts(like Sony-Microsoft), not to mention they still own the handheld gaming market...and 3ds is making them money even with mobile phone gaming.

[BOLLOCKS]

This is what I keep hearing from their user base, and surely they have some of the deepest pockets in the entertainment industry, but SEGA did too once upon a time. All it takes is the right combination of failed hardware and questionable business decisions (which Nintendo has in spades right now) to sink an otherwise successful company in this highly competitive and cut-throat market.

Sega blew their load with teh dreamcast and didn't sell enough software to recover. Like I said Nintendo have money in teh bank, they're no where near close to that happening to 'em.

[Jam Jars]

They thought launching early and that ugly controller would draw in the casuals that bought the Wii. What they failed to realise is that those casuals played the wii 4 times and realised how crap it was and will never buy another Nintendo home console.

[ßringer]

Sega blew their load with teh dreamcast and didn't sell enough software to recover. Like I said Nintendo have money in teh bank, they're no where near close to that happening to 'em.

Actually Sega blew their load with a wide variety of hardware failures, but the Dreamcast wasn't one of them. Dreamcast consoles sold pretty damn well overall, but the release of the PS2 and the fact that Dreamcast games were still CD based and had no anti-pirating measures in place were it's undoing - ISO sites were popping up all over the internet loaded with Dreamcast games from it's release. The failure of the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn also played a huge part in Sega's downfall.

Nintendo was profitable even in the GameCube days....If Wii-U bombs, they'll rescale their expectations and assume a new model to be profitable once again....they're not a mega corporation that bleeds in all fronts(like Sony-Microsoft), not to mention they still own the handheld gaming market...and 3ds is making them money even with mobile phone gaming

You make a salient point here in regards to MS and Sony bleeding on multiple fronts, whereas Nintendo really just has to worry about two fronts - Handheld and consoles. I don't think we're looking at the collapse of the company here, but there definitely needs to be some restructuring done on Nintendo's part. Specifically in their North American advertising branch.

They would also do well to be a little more hands on with third party developers like Microsoft and Sony are : MS and Sony have outstanding working relationships with big 3rd party developers whereas Nintendo really seems to piss on third party developers in favor of giving bigger budgets to first and second party developers for their exclusives. Other largely successful third party developers are on record basically saying the same thing - That Sony and MS nurture an environment where third party developers can thrive but Nintendo really doesn't give a **** about developers input.

[ßringer]

Nintendo needs to just say "**** it" next generation and make the SNES 2.

[BOLLOCKS]

Actually Sega blew their load with a wide variety of hardware failures, but the Dreamcast wasn't one of them. Dreamcast consoles sold pretty damn well overall, but the release of the PS2 and the fact that Dreamcast games were still CD based and had no anti-pirating measures in place were it's undoing - ISO sites were popping up all over the internet loaded with Dreamcast games from it's release. The failure of the Sega CD, 32X, and Saturn also played a huge part in Sega's downfall.

I meant they put every last penny they had into teh Dreamcast. Not that teh Dreamcast was a failure. They were losing monies on every Dreamcast sold and weren't selling enough software to make up for it. Unlike Nintendo thanks to teh Saturn/Sega CD they had no monies in teh bank to weather teh storm.

[ßringer]

I meant they put every last penny they had into teh Dreamcast. Not that teh Dreamcast was a failure. They were losing monies on every Dreamcast sold and weren't selling enough software to make up for it. Unlike Nintendo thanks to teh Saturn/Sega CD they had no monies in teh bank to weather teh storm.

So basically what you're saying is that Sega was Cotto post-Margarito : The Sega CD was Michael Jennings and the Saturn was Joshua Clottey. Then along came the Dreamcast - AKA Pacquiao.

[BOLLOCKS]

So basically what you're saying is that Sega was Cotto post-Margarito : The Sega CD was Michael Jennings and the Saturn was Joshua Clottey. Then along came the Dreamcast - AKA Pacquiao.

[-Hyperion-]

brilliant .....


Nintendo can always make money with their brands alone...

Pokemon, Mario, Zelda....people just don't stop buying them...