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Nintendo Q3: Lowers 3DS by 2M Hard/12M Software, Lowers Forecast, Expects $837M Loss

dacuk

Member
That's the story of all Japanese companies. The $ is just too low. If the USA were an average country, companies would say "our goods are now 20% more expensive, deal with it!" to the Americans. However, the USA is the most important market, therefore a lower $ doesn't affect the US-citizens as much as the foreign companies, which desperately rather take losses than miss the market.

That's why China tries to be less dependent on the dollar, and if Nintendo wants to make money in the future, Iwata should reconsider the entry into the market of China and South America (which Nintendo took it, funny enough, very seriously in the 80s when Arakawa and Lincoln weren't sure to win the case in the court).

NeoC, could you please share more about this?
 
Nintendo's biggest competitors are not Sony and Microsoft, they're Apple and Google. The disappointing sales of the 3DS and the DOA launch of the Vita show that the "traditional" handheld market is much, much smaller than before.

The 3DS is selling much faster than the DS sold in the same time frame, even though it's priced higher.

Actually...

This chart is out of date for the most recent 3DS number, but am I reading it right? 3DS has sold 15 million to retailers currently, but the NDS only sold 8.8 million in the same time frame? I know the DS didn't explode out of the gate, but this seems like an even higher gap between the two than I thought.

I think there's a big difference between "disappointing" and "not as good as prior generations".


NB: I didn't figure in GBA sales, and DS sales were pretty low, so I don't know whether Nintendo's portable sales are higher or lower in general.
 

jcm

Member
Jesus, every damned quarter. It's like groundhog day. Is there any company that does a worse job managing expectations? Three years ago Nintendo's market cap was $65B. Today it's $17B. Easy come, easy go.
 
There was a wii redesign.

There's only so much you can do with an already compact design like the Wii (in turn, from an already compact GCN).

The usual route of smaller/slimmer wouldn't have worked for Wii. What they could've done though is go for a premium model instead (HDD bay, DVD playback, rechargable controllers, larger flash drive, etc) and raised pricepoints. Too late for anything like that now.
 
Jesus, every damned quarter. It's like groundhog day. Is there any company that does a worse job managing expectations? Three years ago Nintendo's market cap was $65B. Today it's $17B. Easy come, easy go.

Four years ago, but yes, so cray cray.
 

LOCK

Member
Other than talking to third parties about software prices, I think everything is going to be alright. I expect some aggressive decisions for the upcoming fiscal year though which will be good for us.
 
After such a huge price drop on the hardware, they have to move mountains of software...which just doesn't seem to be happening.

Who are these people buying a system and only buying one or two games?
AJQjv.jpg

Seriously, who ARE these people?
 
Jesus, every damned quarter. It's like groundhog day. Is there any company that does a worse job managing expectations? Three years ago Nintendo's market cap was $65B. Today it's $17B. Easy come, easy go.

Sony's market cap similarly nosedived, from over $50B in 2008 to the current $18B today.

Also, Nintendo's cap was $52B three years back.
 

Neo C.

Member
NeoC, could you please share more about this?
IIRC, I read that bit from David Sheff's book:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Over_(1993_book)

It's worth reading! In short: Arakawa was responsible for the Nintendo business in the USA and - after a rough start - extremely successful, but Nintendo got sued over "Donkey Kong". We know that Nintendo won this case, but Arakawa and Lincoln were ready to shift the business to South America if they had lost the case, which had had tough consequences for the US business.
 
They just released the 2 biggest things their handheld can muster - another mario platformer game and another mario kart game. Of course the 3ds is going to pick up with a low software ratio. Not only that but they lowered the handhelds price at a record rate. They pulled out their big guns really early and for good reasons, and none of them promising for nintendo.
They better hope to god another angry birds phenomenon doesn't sweep the legs of their desperate dash...a mario dash if you will.
 

jcm

Member
Sony's market cap similarly nosedived, from over $50B in 2008 to the current $18B today.

Also, Nintendo's cap was $52B three years back.

"Only a little worse than Sony" isn't exactly praiseworthy, since Sony's stick has been a giant piece of shit, too.
 
They just released the 2 biggest things their handheld can muster - another mario platformer game and another mario kart game. Of course the 3ds is going to pick up with a low software ratio. Not only that but they lowered the handhelds price at a record rate. They pulled out their big guns really early and for good reasons, and none of them promising for nintendo.
They better hope to god another angry birds phenomenon doesn't sweep the legs of their desperate dash...a mario dash if you will.
They only pulled one big gun (Mario Kart). Pokemon and NSMB are still in the wings.
 
"Only a little worse than Sony" isn't exactly praiseworthy, since Sony's stick has been a giant piece of shit, too.
Sure, it's been a rough several years for Japanese companies in general and for broader reasons than just their consumer performance.
 

Somnid

Member
"Only a little worse than Sony" isn't exactly praiseworthy, since Sony's stick has been a giant piece of shit, too.

Sony is much larger company that has it's hand in many more markets. And of course Nintendo's investors like fans are some of the most fickle considering this will be their first annual loss and there's little reason to suppose it will continue.
 
Will the DS still have enough left in the tank to surpass the PS2 in the next year?

I'm surprised it hasn't already considering how many people keep buying redesigns and the families with multiple units for all their kids. I know a guy at work who has 7 in his household.
 

jcm

Member
Sure, it's been a rough several years for Japanese companies in general and for broader reasons than just their consumer performance.

Japanese companies in general have done much better than Sony and Nintendo. And why are you talking about Sony in the Nintendo earnings thread, anyway?

Xd4i8.png
 

Elios83

Member
A lot rests upon Wii U.
The fact that they want to return to profit next year means that it's unlikely that Wii U will be sold at a loss....but at the same time I really doubt that WiiU has any chance to be a success at a price higher than 300$. Wii U will be also competing with cheaper 360 and PS3 later this year so price will be an important factor.
 

The Boat

Member
Pardon me for my ignorance, but I tend to forget how these things work, they lost 53,7 billion Yen with currency exchange, how can we relate this with the rest of the numbers to see how much was indeed caused by exchange rates?

Also, I don't understand why people keep comparing a videogame company to a phone/mp3 player/tablet/computer company. Makes no sense.
 
Worldwide, 3DS is ahead of where DS was at the end of 2005.
3DS_WW


So I'm noticing a bit of a regional shift. On the whole, Europe was the strongest market for DS.
DS_EU


However, in the cases of DSi, DSiXL, and now 3DS, Europe was initially ahead of North America but fell behind.

DSi_EU

DSiLL_EU

3DS_EU


So for years I have been saying "There are more Wiis available than any near-launch home console ever.", though "near-launch" has become increasingly stretched. While this is still true, it's been apparent for a while that it would eventually fall behind PS2. However, now it looks like Wii has slowed down enough that it won't get the chance to be "Fastest to 100 million.", barring some price cut boost in the next few quarters. However, this is comparing to Sony's old shipment reporting methods, so there's a bit of gray area.
Wii_WW

You know, looking over this again, the 2 million 3DS hardware drop was less than I expected

However, lowering software by 24 million is what really sticks out to me.
I think saying they dropped by 24 is a bit oversimplified. That's the change from the beginning of the year, but that forecast has been all over the place. It went from 62 to 70 (which seemed crazy when the system was performing worse than expected) to 50 to now 38. I think only the 50 to 38 drop is really relevant as a surprise now. I mean, considering how slow hardware sales were early on of course they were always going to miss that 62. But they must have expected software over October-December software to be much bigger than it ended up being.
Jonnyram said:
They revised 3DS down to 14M, so they still have 2.5M to sell in the last quarter to reach that.
Considering it's traditionally a slow quarter, I think this basically confirms a revised 3DS before FY end.
I think you're just underestimating the norm. Here's what DS's worldwide shipments were January-March quarters.
2005: 2.43M
2006: 2.30M
2007: 4.68M
2008: 5.81M
2009: 5.56M
2010: 3.76M
2011: 1.83M
 

Somnid

Member
Also, I don't understand why people keep comparing a videogame company to a phone/mp3 player/tablet/computer company. Makes no sense.

How so? They are all hardware platforms for the same types of media. There's a ton of similarity even if the overall product targets one type more than the other.
 
let us be 100% clear about this - this is NOT to do with _JUST_ the yen. The 3DS has underperformed, Nintendo have had to swallow a huge price cut, the software sales have been cut, the DS is done, the Wii is petering out.

It's NOT the Yen. It's a factor in reducing repatriated takings based on their expected FX rate at the start of the FY, but that's not going to account for ALL thier woes.
I agree for the most part. There is a lot hinging on the Wii U. It could be a make or break type of thing for their console division. Handhelds seem fine, although I still believe this is the last handheld generation.

Nintendo doesn't do shipped figures for hardware - they don't need to, they've had an electronic registration system at store checkout for years. They know the moment any system is sold.
how come the others don't do that?
 

Kazerei

Banned
3DS software to hardware ratio is 2.49. That's pretty good, right? The old forecast of 50M software on 16M hardware seems very aggressive. The new forecast is alot more reasonable.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
I agree for the most part. There is a lot hinging on the Wii U. It could be a make or break type of thing for their console division. Handhelds seem fine, although I still believe this is the last handheld generation.


how come the others don't do that?

For the first, surely this will be the last generation for handleds
priced at 250 Dollars
.

For the second...I just think he's joking :p
 

JJConrad

Sucks at viral marketing
How much of the 3DS software numbers can be attributed to the higher price of games? Would Nintendo have sold more if 3DS games were broadly the same price as DS games?
Its really hard to say. I'm sure higher software prices had some effect, but I don't think that was a major factor. I would attribute most of the low software sales to two things:

1) Momentum - They like to post charts in the media create threads. From there, you can see how the 3DS petered out until the system's price drop, then came roaring back. It could be said that the system is actually just a 5 month old system, with a million pre-installed base. Half the user base has had the system 8 weeks or less, they need time to start buying games. Compare that to the DS, where half of its relative user based bought it near launch.

2) Release Schedule - It also needs pointed out, and its not represented in those charts above, that the DS had an insane year for software in 2006. By the end of the fiscal year, the DS had 7 million-plus-sellers in Japan and it didn't need to wait until Q3 to find them. I really have no idea why Nintendo set their original goal (62M) so incredibly high and then revised it down to an amount that still exceeded the DS. The software needed to do that came too late and that's not even considering that they would need to catch up from the slow start.
 
So how much money does Nintendo have in the bank for spending on research, ads, development, etc? Like, for example, there are recent articles talking about Apple accumulating 90 something billion over the years.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
For the second...I just think he's joking :p

lol - i spent all day working on fx rates - i'm just venting because the next 2 months of my life will be devoted to it #ragefist
 
After such a huge price drop on the hardware, they have to move mountains of software...which just doesn't seem to be happening.

Who are these people buying a system and only buying one or two games?

Tons of people. I don't personally know anyone that bought anything other than Mario Kart or Mario Land with their 3DS.
 

jcm

Member
how come the others don't do that?

He's wrong about the numbers Nintendo reports - they do, in fact, use shipped numbers for their earnings, which makes sense because that's what constitutes a sale to a manufacturer.

He's right, though, that Nintendo developed a system for point of sale registration of hardware purchases to prevent return fraud, which has a side effect of counting sales of units sold through at participating retailers. The system is called Siras, it was spun off into a separate business, and Sony Playstation is a customer. I'm sure MS has something comparable.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
.ooops. wrong thread

Japanese companies in general have done much better than Sony and Nintendo

I'd like to point at your graph and then at the people who claimed that the Gaming industry was "recession proof"

i called bullshit back then, and i think it's -really- starting to hit recently.

The only thing recession proof that isn't oil or a basic necessity is Apple.
 

The Boat

Member
How so? They are all hardware platforms for the same types of media. There's a ton of similarity even if the overall product targets one type more than the other.

I'm sorry but I strongly disagree. One focuses simply on game hardware and software, the other focuses on a multitude of different products, with the only similarity being that games happen to come out for most of their products. Why don't we compare console numbers to PCs then? Why do we try to compare Nintendo with MS and Sony's gaming divisions (which is becoming increasingly hard)? There are worthwhile points to look at both sectors, but as far as earnings go, I think the comparisons are unjustified.
 

muu

Member
Shares drop with good news and rises with bad news.

Get some before E3!

Shares did drop significantly after this news. Not too bad of a time to buy, though I'd caution that general investor sentiment is still smartphones/social gaming. I got some Ninty stock for shits and giggles in my IRA that I've definitely lost money on (though not nearly as much as some other sectors...), and even then I'd be cautious about dipping in some more, as even real profit will certainly be met with cries of 'but we don't have Mario on a smartphone yet' which will probably keep people from buying shares (and therefore, keep prices low).
 

jman2050

Member
Shares did drop significantly after this news. Not too bad of a time to buy, though I'd caution that general investor sentiment is still smartphones/social gaming. I got some Ninty stock for shits and giggles in my IRA that I've definitely lost money on (though not nearly as much as some other sectors...), and even then I'd be cautious about dipping in some more, as even real profit will certainly be met with cries of 'but we don't have Mario on a smartphone yet' which will probably keep people from buying shares (and therefore, keep prices low).

I imagine all Nintendo can do is just eat the smartphone wave for as long as it's trendy for the time being before things start improving again.
 

Cheebo

Banned
Last quarter's 3DS sales are disappointing?

Apple sold 65 million iOS devices last qtr (and yes, they are the competition. iPad's top kids and teens toy wish lists and they buy games on them). I'd say compared to what Apple can sell, yes 3DS's sales are a dissapointing. Compared to Vista/PSP? No, not at all. But Sony/Nintendo is no longer the only game in town for handhelds.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
Apple sold 65 million iOS devices last qtr (and yes, they are the competition. iPad's top kids and teens toy wish lists and they buy games on them). I'd say compared to what Apple can sell, yes 3DS's sales are a dissapointing. Compared to Vista/PSP? No, not at all. But Sony/Nintendo is no longer the only game in town for handhelds.

Haha, no. Looking at hardware sales only, 3DS had a great quarter.
 

rosjos44

Member
Apple sold 65 million iOS devices last qtr (and yes, they are the competition. iPad's top kids and teens toy wish lists and they buy games on them). I'd say compared to what Apple can sell, yes 3DS's sales are a dissapointing. Compared to Vista/PSP? No, not at all. But Sony/Nintendo is no longer the only game in town for handhelds.

and I'm sure 64.8 million of those users purchased an IOS device for a phone type function primary or music. I'm not saying apple is a their but your comparing apples to oranges almost here.
 

Cheebo

Banned
Haha, no. Looking at hardware sales only, 3DS had a great quarter.

Compared to Sony and the rest of the traditinal game market, yes. It did great. But if we are counting iOS as a competing platform (which it was being refered to as in the post I was quoting) then it's a completely different story. Even if you just compare it to iPad 2 alone.
 

StevieP

Banned
Compared to Sony and the rest of the traditinal game market, yes. It did great. But if we are counting iOS as a competing platform (which it was being refered to as in the post I was quoting) then it's a completely different story. Even if you just compare it to iPad 2 alone.

There is no question that IOS devices are eating into the sales of *all* traditional gaming platforms in some fashion (simply by virtue of being the current "hotness"), but the reality is that the lines are a bit blurred there. They are serving 2 different markets for the most part.
 

Jokeropia

Member
Apple sold 65 million iOS devices last qtr (and yes, they are the competition. iPad's top kids and teens toy wish lists and they buy games on them). I'd say compared to what Apple can sell, yes 3DS's sales are a dissapointing. Compared to Vista/PSP? No, not at all. But Sony/Nintendo is no longer the only game in town for handhelds.
That's still a nonsensical comparison since ios devices are not bought as dedicated gaming machines. Of course there's a bigger market for cell phones than portable game consoles.

In terms of game revenue, the App Store is dwarfed by traditional game consoles. (Total App Store revenue since inception in July 2008 is ~$4 billion, and that includes all apps rather than just games. During this period, Nintendo has sold ~500m DS games. Now I don't know what the worldwide ARP is for DS games, but it's sure as hell more than $8.)
 
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