Nintendo has posted a $500 million loss due to slow Wii U sales

[Otaking]

"Nintendo has posted a staggering $500 million operating loss due to slow Wii U sales."
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/nintendo-posts-huge-500m-operating-loss-as-wii-u-sales-slump

[ProfessorProfessorson]

Yeah Nintendo is being too stubborn with this one. The writing has been on the wall for the Wii U. People want powerful hardware for their money now, not gimmicks like tablet game pads coupled with underpowered cpu's and dated gpu technology. And this is a sentiment that has been expressed by most of the major development studios. Given all the years they spent on top by bullying competitors and developers and making enemies when they had clout, now they are here with obviously the worst hardware at market and no power or pull to exploit anymore because developers have 4 other systems they can release their games on, all with similar or much better performance.

Nintendo should be revising the hardware and offering a updated system with a faster cpu/gpu combo to get the developers interested again in the hardware, along with revised developer incentives for exclusive titles. That and start selling games that can run in dual mode, either running on Wii U as is with the current 360 like visuals and frame rates, or when run on the revised version of the console, with better visuals and frame rates.

Given how people tend to forgive Apple for their multiple revisions/versions being released to the Ipod and Ipad, it may be worth Nintendo to risk it. They could even offer a trade in program for people to upgrade to the revised hardware. Odds are Nintendo wont do anything like this though. They have always operated under a stubborn like mentality that the given course is the correct one always. They lay out their plans years in advance and don't deviate from them, which as you can see now is backfiring given all the bridges they burned over the years and due to their insistence of coming to market with the lowest system specs/cheapest system hardware.

[MrBroadway]

$500 million loss is staggering indeed, but let's remember that it will take 30 years of $500 million losses before they hit $0. I'm sure they're thinking of the long run in a way, if they're thinking at all. Cheaper Wii U may entice more, and the cost to make a Wii U will only go down, I presume, over the next couple of years.

It's bad, but it's not the death knell a lot of people think it is.

[Desh]

The WiiU isn't horrible even with it's dated specs.  Look at the success of the original Wii.  The problem was the name and marketing on this one.  I barely ever see any T.V. ads about it.  The name WiiU implies that it's not a new console.  I bet if you asked the average person they would think it's just an add on for the Wii or a freshened version.  A lot of people don't realize that it's all new.  There also haven't been any games that have fully utilized the peripherals.  WTF Nintendo.  There handheld business will always keep them afloat.

[KnightWarrior]

It's about the Games not how Powerful the System

[ProfessorProfessorson]

It's about the Games not how Powerful the System

That way of thinking died with the Wii and PS2 basically. With home consoles now its about the most powerful hardware gets the most/best games. Many major developers don't want to work with the Wii U's weaker tri core PowerPC cpu and smaller hard drive size, so what you are getting for the system now is Nintendo exclusives and HD remakes, and a lot of kids games and digital download titles. You honestly cant blame them. Current mainstream games are just becoming more and more complex, and they eating up more and more hard drive size as time goes on.

Developers now want quad core and above fast cpus with out-of-order execution, a solid gpu, lots of ram, and a large hard drive. They want to make games on platforms that are easy to port back and forth to between the consoles and PC. They were very verbal about this and Nintendo chose to ignore it all in favor of cutting cost so they could get the tablet gamepad worked into the total price.

Because Nintendo wanted to ignore everyone, current ports the Wii U gets even struggle some to keep up with the 360 versions performance, etc. It is only going to get worse and worse as development for the 360 and PS3 slows down, the PS4 and Xbox One ramps up, and the Wii U gets expected to keep up with the later two systems and perform on the same level (which it cant).

And you also have the casual players and older generation that Nintendo captured during the Wii's time at retail that have been lost due to the Wii U's cost, under-performance, and the tablet controller adding complications to gameplay that casual players, small kids, and older people don't want to have to deal with. Even though Nintendo is unhappy about it, the fact of the matter is that the Wii U has become a niche product whose customers will mainly be Nintendo diehards or gamers with money to burn who buy more then one console, and it's Nintendo's fault it happened that way.

Maybe they will take this as a learning experience and bring something more compelling to market next time. It's an expensive lesson to learn, but Nintendo had to learn it sometime.

Anyway, the good news is you Wii U owners do get Mario Kart 8 this month. The bad news? You don't get Watchdogs and Wolfenstein: The New Order. Hopefully you kept those 360 and Ps3 systems on hand at least. Blazkowicz is depending on you.

[MrBroadway]

One other minor point about Nintendo's financial loss:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/01/sony-adds-200m-in-expected-losses-despite-ps4-success

the company is now predicting a net loss of ¥130 billion / $1.27 billion where in February it forecast a loss of ¥110 billion / $1.07 billion. Moving back further, at the end of the last financial year it expected a ¥50 billion / $489 million profit.

This is why it's hard to take the "doom and gloom" scenario surrounding Nintendo seriously. Yes, they want to be profitable, but they're hardly in the worse shape. I'm also not sold on the idea that the games are immaterial.

It doesn't look the best for Nintendo, but it's not the worse, and I'm sure they'll figure things out in a few years, or try something different (like they did for the Wii).

[toymachine78]

Nintendo needs to follow Sega. Get out of the hardware business, and sell your software. How awesome would an ultimate Nintendo collection be for the Xbox/PS ? I love the Sega ultimate collection. The emulation is good, and the sound is terrific. Actually the Xbox disc sounds the way I remember the genesis sounding as a kid. The real genesis I bought last year sounds like complete ass! I must have one of the models with the jacked up sound processor.

[BigusSchmuck]

Well at least Nintendo won't release something asinine like the 32x as a upgrade to their system. I'm actually glad they aren't on board with the FPS craze as I seriously believe we are long over due for another crash. This is a good read:
http://gamentrain.com/the-videogame-crash-of-2014/#.U3DOoigUOKB

[toymachine78]

Well at least Nintendo won't release something asinine like the 32x as a upgrade to their system. I'm actually glad they aren't on board with the FPS craze as I seriously believe we are long over due for another crash. This is a good read:
http://gamentrain.com/the-videogame-crash-of-2014/#.U3DOoigUOKB

.  I agree! Especially the COD franchise. That formula is worn slap the f**k out!

[MrBroadway]

Well at least Nintendo won't release something asinine like the 32x as a upgrade to their system. I'm actually glad they aren't on board with the FPS craze as I seriously believe we are long over due for another crash. This is a good read:
http://gamentrain.com/the-videogame-crash-of-2014/#.U3DOoigUOKB

Good article, but seriously needs to be updated with respect to its prediction.

[thesteve]

lets not forget that we all died a bit when more powerfull hardware made the FMV game the standard (3DO)
likewise as the graphics and animations got more complex the gameplay was pushed aside, pushing most of us into (keeping us in) previous generation consoles
then the LCD/Plasma lag basically killed the ability of a home console to perform

[Necromancer]

Nintendo just needs to get out some frickin' games.  There's nothing they can do at this point to make it dominate the PS4 or Xbone, but they should be able to turn it into a profitable, minor player (like the N64 and GC).

[Dicer]

System can pump out damn nice visuals, it just needs more software...

Ubi delaying Rayman like they did and EA totally f*cking them over didn't help them at the start, and on their own faults, they let the Wii die too quickly instead of doing a better transition. The pad is fine but they did f*ck all to showcase as to why it was needed.

Both Nintendo and 3rd parties are to blame here, but the system itself, I love the damn thing, just need more stuff to play.

In the end there is plenty of Indie stuff coming and stuff like MKart8/Smash/Bayo2/X/FEvsSMT and so on will keep it worth having in the short term.

[BlueBMW]

As someone who does play call of duty. (I know blasphemy!)  It is fun with friends and the ADD hyper twitch gameplay is enjoyable in small bursts.  I am concerned though... In the most recent one (Ghosts) they have been rolling out a lot of what amount to basically micro transactions.  I understand having map packs that come out throughout the year... Thats fine and I dont mind oaying for them.  But now theyve added other purchaseables like camo packs etc.  Im even fine with those since they dont affect gameplay or give any advantage to those who buy them.  Recently though they added a new gun as part of a map pack.  If you bought the "season pass" you got early access to that new gun.  Its debatable whether or not its overpowered or not but its definitely near the top of guns in that class.  So basically if you paid extra money you got access to a powerful weapon that might give you an edge over players who dont have it.  I see eventually theyll make lots of game balance changing items purchaseables and thus making it a pay to win king of game.  If this happens I think youll see some serious frustration from the series core fans.

Though now that I think of it... A lot of people I play with basically play nothing else so spending extra money wouldnt be a big deal since they basically buy one game a year.  These same people spend hundreds of dollars on headsets.  So I dunno... To me the microtransactions are a real turn off.  Fortunately the pc engine does not support DLC so Im good there!