Nintendo Suffers First Annual Loss in Three Decades
 

The Los Angeles Times reports that Nintendo has suffered an annual loss of over $500 million dollars, the first loss in 30 years.


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i don't get how they're as successful as they are and yet always seem on the brink of destruction.
while i didn't buy a wii, and i don't plan on buying the wii v1.2, i still consider myself a fan of these guys.
while companies like blizzard, sony and bioware have managed to lose my loyalty, nintendo has yet to pull a dick move big enough to roll my eyes.

804 mil loss on 8.2 billion in sales? Shit Sony...i'm out of Sony jokes.

Nintendo will be fine, they have been hit by the strong yen and the 3DS price cut. In the IR briefing Iwata stated they should begin to turn profit on 3DS by end of summer.

In BIGGER news, Iwata announced Nintendo's digital distribution plans and the service goes live in August with downloads of packaged games. The only announced game so far is new super Mario bros 2. He also annouced digital downloads of games on day one of WiiU launch.

Oh forgot to mention that new super Mario bros 2 is for 3DS. So buy it retail or download from the eShop.

They can always make playing cards and pachinko machines after the Wii-U folds in on itself.

Also, it seems like the 3DS is still selling above the cost of manufacture. A rarity for Nitty. I read something like March 2013 before they make a profit on that hardware.

Also, I read that this was the first annual loss in *their entire history* not just the last 30 years.

EDIT: I Read the article again. They are saying it will be profitable in 6 months.

First world Nintendo problem because when everyone already owns one.

Apparently there were 10 million people who didn't:

The Wii may be in fast decline, but the year leading up to March 31 was hardly a dry period for the platform. 9.84 Million hardware units were sold worldwide, backed up by 102.37 million software units.

Pretty frickin respectable. Nearly half of the loss was just to exchange rates; harsh.

also: Smart phones.

The fact that this is the first loss that nintendo has had in 30 years really should speak loudly about the company.

Yes.. it says "THANK GOD THEY ARE STARTING TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX AND TAKE RISKS."

These losses will likely cause Nintendo to go back to their old ways with 3 more decades of the same old shit.

Dunno about you but I'm really looking forward to the next Zelda... ... and Metroid... and Mario... and Donkey Kong...

I'm actually kinda tired of Nintendo repackaging nostalgia over and over. That and motion controls are just annoying for me. Let's get some new innovation up in there!

Serves them right for getting fat and lazy. Success made them arrogant, and now they're starting to reap the reward thereof. You think they would have learned from Sony's example the fate of those who allow their market leader position to blind them to the wolves chasing from behind.

I think no-glasses 3D was pretty fracking innovative. If it wasn't for the high cost both my kids would probably already own one. I think they got hurt because once you spend $200 each on a DSi you don't want to do it again for a 3DS and both my kids DSi's work just fine.

When you make hardware that doesn't break down every 30-seconds (ie, Xbox 360) people aren't in a big hurry to upgrade.

Sony STILL hasn't learned from their own mistakes. Why should Wintendo?

And hooker hotels!

They did learn, thats why they're releasing the Wii-U as soon as the Wii is losing its (Insane) steam and why they took the "embarrassing" route of dropping the 3DS price by $80 less than 4 months since launch.

Since then the 3DS is now back to being the best selling console EVER in the time period its been out and we'll see what the Wii-U has going for it at E3. This was a rough year for nintendo, but one loss in 30 years is not going to kill a company that has been constantly making money for 30+ years.

Also, if you read the article, 50% of the money loss was simply due to the fact that the Yen is currently devaluing at an alarming rate.

Exactly. Our kids have just as much fun with our old iPhone 3GS's as their Nintendo 3DS's. The price of Nintendo games needs to drop.

Right on! My kids each got a new DSi XL which they are both happy with. Both units still work great, and I won't be buying them anything new for a couple of years. I may have gotten more pressure from the 12 year old if the new Pokémon was a 3DS only title.

Hardware wise they're doing interesting things, but as far as games go that I've cared about, its been the same few titles over and over. I've been watching Skyward Sword videos, and it really feels like each new Zelda isn't trying to innovate nearly as much as they used to. As far as the Wii goes, the controls still look and feel like a gimmick, where you could do every move with a normal controller, you don't need to waggle. They finally have two decent JRPGs coming out (Last Story and Xenoblade) but two good games a year and watching my Wii collect dust has driven me away from any real interest in what Nintendo does anymore.

Every time I hear comments like this I remember that there has been more Call of Duty games released on Xbox 360 than there has been Mario Kart games on all Nintendo systems combined. There has been an equal amount of Halo games on XB and 360 as there has been Mario Karts.

Every company milks it's core franchises, but Nintendo does a fair job of spreading it out. There are usually 1 or 2 core titles per franchise released per hardware generation. There are a few exceptions, like 3 SMB games on NES, and 4 Mario Party games on Gamecube, but Nintendo takes a pretty conservative approach compared to other publishers. They just seam like they are going it more because there franchises have been around longer.

This.

I'm not going back to paying $40 a pop for a mobile game. Sorry 3DS & Vita. You look purty and all... but I can't afford ya.

This might be true for you, and many others here as well, the 3DS is still one of the fastest selling consoles to date. Of course, that doesn't help Nintendo if they are selling the hardware for a loss and people are just playing old DS games they already own on it.

Yeah, but the difference is that there's plenty of additional (quality third-party) stuff on all of the other platforms. Yes, every console keeps iterating on its most popular franchises, but with the last few Nintendo consoles, that's about all you get.

The majority of my library for the N64, gamecube, Wii, GBA, DS and 3DS are all third party titles.

There's always third party games on nintendo systems, theres some extremely good third party games on nintendo systems. The same way that nintendo tends to innovate not in major AAA first party titles, but in small e-shop titles such as Art Style or Pushmo.

I do hope we see nintendo taking a few more risks with games in the future, but now that the 3DS is selling insanely well i'm suspecting a hell of a lot more 3rd party support to be announced.

The 3DS 3D is bad for children's eyes. Says so in the manual. And the viewing angle for said 3D is crap. Plus my wife can't use the blasted thing in 3D mode at all she says.

The only thing stopping me from putting mine on eBay is one of my versions of Skylanders is on it, and it is all different from the console versions.

I absolutely love the 3D of the 3DS. I think it looks incredible. The first week i had my 3DS it caused a little bit of an issue, these days i don't have any eye strain at all. Makes me almost want to get a 3D smartphone if they weren't so damned expensive.

I still find the games on the 3DS more than capable without the 3D.

I bought my 10 year old boy an Ipod Touch. His DSXL has been collecting dust ever since and the 3DS totally dropped off of his wish list.

I make him buy his own games now, and he's done the math and found that a $1-5 App Store game > $15 - $30 Nintendo cartridge.

"Wow Dad, Plants vs. Zombies costs $20 on the DS, but only $3 on my Ipod, why?"

"Because the DS version has the word 'Nintendo' on it kiddo..."

Yeah, that was why I sold my Wii, because there's only one or two first party titles a year usually, and most third party games this generation haven't held my interest at all. I won't dispute that other companies don't do the same thing, but Nintendo has been doing it for way longer, and that's practically all the Wii has.

Because we need nintendo. If they go gaming will be dead to me. You should buy the Wii2 with mario, metriod and zelda becuase they will be quality titles still and still fun to play in 15 years. You are still a fan because they make games that last, none of this fun for 6 months then forever dated ME3 bullshit.

I cant imagine the 3DS is causing them loses, whats the problem?

The wii stopped selling outrageous amounts of money, they bought and built an entirely new creative team in tokyo, and the R&D costs for the 3DS and the Wii-U are through the roof. It was a year of a lot of spending and not a lot of income for nintendo, it's all for future proofing so they'll turn around and make a profit.

They also lost nearly half a BILLION dollars because the value of the yen is decreasing at a rapid rate compared to other forms of currency, so whenever they do the conversions they essentially lose money into thin air. It's a problem that's plaguing most major japanese companies. (Nintendo is the second largest company in all of japan.)