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3DSDS

Nintendo Posts Largest Net Loss in History

by Karl Castaneda and James Jones - October 27, 2011, 11:04 am EDT
Total comments: 69 Source: (Nintendo RTT News), http://www.rttnews.com/Content/EarningsNews.aspx?I...

For the first time in its history as a publicly traded company, Nintendo is forecasting an annual loss.

Nintendo's latest financial report shows that the company is forecasting an annual loss for the first time since they started making video games.

For the six-month period ended on September 30, Nintendo's net loss was over 70 billion yen, compared to last year's loss of only 2 billion yen. Nintendo had previously forecasted a loss of just over 35 billion yen for that same period. Sales for the Nintendo DS and 3DS hardware being lower than expected and yen appreciation relative to foreign currencies were offered as the primary reasons for the missed estimates. These losses, while significant, are substantially less than had been rumored.

In July, Nintendo had predicted exchange rates of 77 yen to the U.S. dollar and 115 yen to the euro. However, the actual exchange rate ended up being 80 yen to the dollar and 106 yen to the euro. 79.2% of Nintendo's total sales were conducted outside of Japan, and the net effect of converting local currency to yen resulted in 52.4 billion yen in exchange losses (about 75% of their total loss).

Nintendo had forecasted sales of 240 billion yen for the six month period, however softer than expected sales meant the actual number was only 215.7 billion yen—10.1% below estimates. Beyond the low hardware sales, Nintendo also explained that the 3DS does not yet have "many hit titles" and a lower number of new titles were released for Wii. Additionally, the price drop of the 3DS has lead to "improving" hardware sales. Nintendo is expecting the release of titles such as Mario Kart 7 and Super Mario 3D Land to help the 3DS hardware sales to continue to improve.

As for the end of the fiscal year (March 31, 2012), Nintendo is projecting a net loss of 20 billion yen, harshly contrasted against their previous forecast, a profit of 20 billion yen. This is the first time in Nintendo's history that they've posted a loss annually.

Finally, in regards to their end-year sales, the estimates are currently set at 790 billion yen, down from the earlier estimate, 900 billion.

Nintendo Announces Semiannual Fiscal Year Financial Results

Oct. 27,2011

Nintendo today reported financial results for the first six months of its current fiscal year (through Sept. 30, 2011), and revised downward full-year financial and unit sales forecasts.

In total, the company shipped 9 million hardware units and more than 73 million software units during the half year. In addition, Nintendo revised its full-year unit global shipment forecasts as follows, compared with projections at the end of the previous fiscal quarter:

GLOBAL SHIPMENT FORECAST (millions of units)



Previous forecast
July 28, 2011

Revised forecast
Oct. 27, 2011

Nintendo DS Hardware

9

6


Software

65*

62**

Wii Hardware

12

12


Software

110*

100**

Nintendo 3DS Hardware

16

16


Software

70*

50**

During Q3 and through the rest of the fiscal year, Nintendo and third-party publishers will release several highly anticipated software titles that play exclusively on Nintendo platforms. First-party titles include The Legend of Zelda™: Skyward Sword for the Wii™ console, and Super Mario 3D Land™ and Mario Kart™ 7 for the Nintendo 3DS™ system.

*Forecast announced on July 28 includes units bundled in hardware sets during the June quarter. Forecast units during remainder of the fiscal year are standalone software only.

**Forecast announced on Oct. 27 includes units bundled in hardware sets during the half year. Forecast units during remainder of the fiscal year are standalone software only.

Talkback

EnnerOctober 27, 2011

From what I've been lead to believe in how much money Nintendo has, this news is more significant as a blow to pride and confidence. That, and nasty exchange rate conversions.

Quote:

Nintendo had forecasted sales of 240 million yen for the six month period, however softer than expected sales meant the actual number was only 215.7 billion yen—10.1% below estimates.

Is "billion" a typo?

CericOctober 27, 2011

Quote from: Enner

From what I've been lead to believe in how much money Nintendo has, this news is more significant as a blow to pride and confidence. That, and nasty exchange rate conversions.

Quote:

Nintendo had forecasted sales of 240 million yen for the six month period, however softer than expected sales meant the actual number was only 215.7 billion yen—10.1% below estimates.

Is "billion" a typo?

I'm fairly sure million is the Typo.  Personally the easiest way for me is think of a yen like a penny.

BlackNMild2k1October 27, 2011

Can someone break that down into $$$ so that it makes ¢¢¢?

CericOctober 27, 2011

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

Can someone break that down into $$$ so that it makes ¢¢¢?

Net Loss|¥70,000,000,000.00|$921,200,000.00
Last Year|¥2,000,000,000.00|$26,320,000.00
Forecast|¥35,000,000,000.00|$460,600,000.00
Exchange Loss|¥52,400,000,000.00|$689,584,000.00
Forecast Sales|¥240,000,000,000.00|$3,158,400,000.00
Actual Sales|¥215,700,000,000.00|$2,838,612,000.00
Current Forecast|(¥20,000,000,000.00)|($263,200,000.00)
Previous Forecast|¥20,000,000,000.00|$263,200,000.00
End Year Sales New Estimate|¥790,000,000,000.00|$10,396,400,000.00
End Year Sales Old Estimate|¥900,000,000,000.00|$11,844,000,000.00


This is using the current Exchange rate of 1 Japanese Yen = 0.01316 US Dollar.

Mop it upOctober 27, 2011

I can see a flood of "Nintendo is doomed!" articles forthcoming from various outlets, but I think the only ones who should be concerned with this are shareholders.

Chozo GhostOctober 27, 2011

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

Can someone break that down into $$$ so that it makes ¢¢¢?

No offense, but your avatar makes no ¢ :P:

Quote from: Mop

I can see a flood of "Nintendo is doomed!" articles forthcoming from various outlets, but I think the only ones who should be concerned with this are shareholders.

No matter how you look at it this is significant, because the article says its their first loss since they started making video games, so that's the first time this has happened in over 30 years or so. This NEVER happened even in the darkest days of the Gamecube, yet it is happening now with the Wii which is Nintendo's best selling console of all time. This is really weird.

BlackNMild2k1October 27, 2011

World Wide Economic Depression.

We all feel it.

broodwarsOctober 27, 2011

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

World Wide Economic Depression.

That's really giving Nintendo the easy way out for some spectacularly bad decisions over the past year, though (most notably their handling of the 3DS and the near-abandonment of the Wii in NA).  The economy's played its part in this, but Nintendo needs to start taking responsibility for its hardware.

BlackNMild2k1October 27, 2011

I'm not trying to say the economy is the only reason, but he said it was weird that it happened now out of any time it could have happened.

With the economy the way it is, and with the decisions Nintendo has made leading up to this over the past few years, it's all just really bad timing when you put them together.

Chozo GhostOctober 27, 2011

Actually, with the economy being bad shouldn't Nintendo be doing better relative to the competition? The Wii is the budget system and it has been that way since day one in 2006 when it first launched. That was the key to the Wii's success then and now.

So what I want to know is if things are bad for Nintendo, what are they like for Sony and Microsoft? I think Sony in particular should be hurting bad, especially because of that PSN business a few months back.

broodwarsOctober 27, 2011

Quote from: Chozo

So what I want to know is if things are bad for Nintendo, what are they like for Sony and Microsoft? I think Sony in particular should be hurting bad, especially because of that PSN business a few months back.

Last I heard, Microsoft was doing pretty well with the 360 because of Kinect, and Sony recently reported that PSN sales were up 14% in the months following the PSN hack (and Sony's had a good retail software year).  So it looks like Nintendo's the only company of the Big Three particularly hurting right now.

Nintendo's kind of in a weird spot with the 3DS.  Smartphones have it beat in terms of practical functionality, and Vita has it beat in terms of extra features that might appeal to the smartphone market.  It has all of them beat in price (generally, unless you buy an older phone), but I'm not so sure that's what customers are looking at first and foremost these days.

Let me ask this: would any of you 3DS owners give the system to a 7-year-old, or is it too fragile?  There's no way in hell I would have given the PSP to a kid, but the DS was unbreakable.

Chozo GhostOctober 27, 2011

The economy may be bad right now, but hasn't the economy been bad before? I was probably too young to remember or care, but it seems like during the Clinton administration things were bad. Actually, that's probably around the time of the N64 which was a bad time for Nintendo, but even so they still didn't have a net loss. So the economy being bad is no excuse because its been bad before, but this is the only time they've had a net loss.

What is different now is that Nintendo has been hijacked by the villainous duo of Reggie and Iwata. A lot of people like to say bad things about how Yamauchi ran things with an iron fist, but he always kept the company profitable no matter how the economy was doing. So I don't know, but maybe there should be a change in Nintendo's leadership.

Since a large chunk of this is due to exchange rates, the recession is certainly a major part of it. The current state of the 3DS is a lot of it as well, and that's not something that could have easily been avoided: either there's a drought or there are no sales at all because they waited to release it, and neither way helps the bottom line. I don't know that enough of it can really be linked to the lackluster Wii lineup for Nintendo to change their behavior because of it.

BlackNMild2k1October 27, 2011

Actually Clinton Admin was a time of economic rise. Those were good times.

I don't think there has been a world wide money crisis of this scale since I've been alive.

Wii has saturated a lot of the market and without compelling new software, the hype train has moved on. No new games... or atleast long gaps inbetween compelling software and BIG releases from competing hardware makes for hard times ahead for Nintendo.

3DS was too expensive for perceived value and a lack of games killed that HYPE train almost before it started.

With the rise of Smart Phones and iPads/Tablets, a majority of the casual market has had their attention divided by those kinds of all-in-one portable devices and also have their pockets nickel and dimed by cheap throw away software and f2p online/social games.

Apparently Nintendo has been too distracted by counting all it's money to notice until recently though, and they are still reluctant to dive head in and steal their audience back with openly functional hardware with affordably cheap software (I'm looking at you 25 year old $5 NES VC games). So maybe a big loss like this will make them finally pay attention to whats going on outside of their little bubble, even though I am usually more than happy with the results of them living in their own little fantasy land.

This should help next year's financials, at least:

Quote:

At nintendo results meeting, materials confirm kid icarus will be released in japan in jan-mar, new pokenon spring, both not listed intl

http://twitter.com/gibbogame

Kytim89October 27, 2011

I apologize for this in earnest...

NINTENDO IS SITTING ATLEAST A HALF OF A DOZEN WII GAMES THAT THEY REFUSE TO RELEASE EITHER OUTSIDE JAPAN OR IN NORTH AMERICA. WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY NOT GEARING UP TO PUT THESE TITLES INTO THE HANDS OF THEIR LOYAL FANS AND EARN WHATEVER MONEY THAT IS STILL LEFT FOR THEM TO PILFER ON THEIR DYING CASUAL CONSOLE? THEY COULD ALWAYS SELL THESE DAMN GAMES ON THEIR WEBSITE AND MAKE UP SOME LOST CASH. I MEAN IT IS NOT GOING TO SOLVE THE ISSUE OF CURRENCY FLUCUATIONS, BUT IT WOULD HELP THEM FINANCIALLY AND SAVE FACE ON A COMPANY THAT HAS A BAD REPUTATION OF BEING COY WITH ITS FANS.

Quote from: Kytim89

I apologize for this in earnest...

NINTENDO IS SITTING ATLEAST A HALF OF A DOZEN WII GAMES THAT THEY REFUSE TO RELEASE EITHER OUTSIDE JAPAN OR IN NORTH AMERICA. WHY THE FUCK ARE THEY NOT GEARING UP TO PUT THESE TITLES INTO THE HANDS OF THEIR LOYAL FANS AND EARN WHATEVER MONEY THAT IS STILL LEFT FOR THEM TO PILFER ON THEIR DYING CASUAL CONSOLE? THEY COULD ALWAYS SELL THESE DAMN GAMES ON THEIR WEBSITE AND MAKE UP SOME LOST CASH. I MEAN IT IS NOT GOING TO SOLVE THE ISSUE OF CURRENCY FLUCUATIONS, BUT IT WOULD HELP THEM FINANCIALLY AND SAVE FACE ON A COMPANY THAT HAS A BAD REPUTATION OF BEING COY WITH ITS FANS.

You don't get to apologize and then still be obnoxious, especially when you're going to be obnoxious by repeating the same argument you've been whining about for months. We get it: you think Nintendo should release those games. So do a lot of people. But they've made their decision, and you're not going to change their mind with all-caps posts on this forum, so give it a rest.

YmeegodOctober 27, 2011

"3DS was too expensive for perceived value and a lack of games killed that HYPE train almost before it started"

Nintendo selling it at a loss and their annual income proves this yet Black you still think otherwise? 

A few other notes is alot of money was spent on re-amping the 3DS--Nintendo spent another 300 million on new commericals/ads whatnot and that alone makes up the loss for the year.

It's not really going make much difference to them anyhow.  45+ Billion nest egg.

Luigi DudeOctober 27, 2011

Quote from: Kytim89

I apologize for this in earnest...
 
NINTENDO IS SITTING ATLEAST A HALF OF A DOZEN WII GAMES THAT THEY REFUSE TO RELEASE EITHER OUTSIDE JAPAN OR IN NORTH AMERICA. WHY THE **** ARE THEY NOT GEARING UP TO PUT THESE TITLES INTO THE HANDS OF THEIR LOYAL FANS AND EARN WHATEVER MONEY THAT IS STILL LEFT FOR THEM TO PILFER ON THEIR DYING CASUAL CONSOLE? THEY COULD ALWAYS SELL THESE DAMN GAMES ON THEIR WEBSITE AND MAKE UP SOME LOST CASH. I MEAN IT IS NOT GOING TO SOLVE THE ISSUE OF CURRENCY FLUCUATIONS, BUT IT WOULD HELP THEM FINANCIALLY AND SAVE FACE ON A COMPANY THAT HAS A BAD REPUTATION OF BEING COY WITH ITS FANS.

Games like Xenoblade and The Last Story wouldn't make any difference for this kind of loss.  They're losing a lot of their money because of the exchange rate.  If Xenoblade and The Last Story were to come to America, because of the poor exchange rate, they'd have to be bigger hits now in order to make any meaningful profit.  A few years ago, both games might have only needed to do around 100k in North America in order to make a good profit, but now because of the crappy exchange rate, they might have to sell 200k in order to make the same kind of profit.  This is how a poor exchange rate can really f*ck over a company like Nintendo who makes most of their money from foreign countries, because it's something they have no control over.

This is probably the real reason why NOA in the last several years has mostly brought over guaranteed sellers.  Because of the weak US dollar, games need to sell more in America in order to make NCL the same kind of profit they would have made in the past.  Since the Euro is stronger then the dollar, games in Europe don't need to sell as much as they would in America in order to make profit, which would explain why NOE has had no problem releasing more games during this same time.

This would finally explain why NOA had Xenoblade on their release list under the name Monado until Spring 2011 and then it finally vanished, in which NOE suddenly announced it was coming to Europe.  NOA probably intended on actually releasing the game in North America all along, but because of how the dollar has kept falling, worried it wouldn't be able to sell enough, so that's why they're watching how it sells in Europe now before making a final decision.

The poor exchange rate is definitely the best explanation I've heard for Europe getting the games and NA not getting them.

ThePermOctober 27, 2011

The first time Nintendo experienced a quarterly loss was right before they released Wii and experienced accelerated growth. Every Japanese company is doing worse than they should be doing because the Yen is too strong. Japan is an export country and relies on making money on exports. However, I have to say Nintendo really should beef up its American operations, they don't do much autonomously and they should. If NOA can start releasing games focused towards western audiences than they might be able to make up for balances lost in NCL Its been a couple of years since they had some support like Rare, Retro, and Silicon Knights were helping out. Now there is only Retro.

xcwarriorOctober 28, 2011

Give Americans some games to play. Might help for the future.

I heard about these 3 Wii RPGs that might sell around here. Just a thought.

YmeegodOctober 28, 2011

Actually the publisher gets about the same amount from the Europeans, why is there a difference in price? Markup + taxes are different.  In europe most countries have an import tax that is already added to the price of the games which is like 20% and then you have the higher markup's (retailers share).  In the states the markup is 20%-30% which in Europe the markup is 40% and Aussies is like 80%+.  Meaning the only ones making the profits is the retail stores themselves.

Good ole USA still doesn't have an import tax on gaming :0.  Just an sales tax which is 8-9% and it's added after the costs.

In Japan I guess it's due to the Japanese government and it's distribution system.  Complex mess with alot of handoffs which each take a cut.  In the US it's straight forward--Factory--wholesaler--retailer--consumer. 

King of TwitchOctober 28, 2011

No blame for the tsunami?

ejamerOctober 28, 2011

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

The poor exchange rate is definitely the best explanation I've heard for Europe getting the games and NA not getting them.

Weren't the exchange rates worse for Europe than NA, though? And small profit from releasing niche games (and supporting what is left of your core audience) is better than no profit from releasing nothing.


The only explanations that I can see really being viable are:
(1) Nintendo doesn't count small successes, so the risk didn't outweigh the reduced profits
(2) NoA was too busy with other tasks... but since there hasn't been any other games to support and 3DS hasn't even received that big of a campaign, I can't imagine what has kept them so busy that they couldn't get small print runs of a couple games pushed out the door.

Chozo GhostOctober 28, 2011

Quote from: broodwars

Sony recently reported that PSN sales were up 14% in the months following the PSN hack (and Sony's had a good retail software year).

If that's true that is unfortunate, because heaven knows they don't deserve it after the shit they pulled.

CericOctober 28, 2011

Quote from: NWR_Lindy

Nintendo's kind of in a weird spot with the 3DS.  Smartphones have it beat in terms of practical functionality, and Vita has it beat in terms of extra features that might appeal to the smartphone market.  It has all of them beat in price (generally, unless you buy an older phone), but I'm not so sure that's what customers are looking at first and foremost these days.

Let me ask this: would any of you 3DS owners give the system to a 7-year-old, or is it too fragile?  There's no way in hell I would have given the PSP to a kid, but the DS was unbreakable.

I let my 3 Year old use it all the time as a camera and he sometimes try to play games.

Quote from: Ymeegod

...
A few other notes is alot of money was spent on re-amping the 3DS--Nintendo spent another 300 million on new commericals/ads whatnot and that alone makes up the loss for the year.
...

Really?  I don't think I've seen a single ad or commercial for the 3DS.  I've seen ones for the DS though.  That's some real Marketing fail.

ejamerOctober 28, 2011

Quote from: Ceric

Quote from: NWR_Lindy

Nintendo's kind of in a weird spot with the 3DS.  Smartphones have it beat in terms of practical functionality, and Vita has it beat in terms of extra features that might appeal to the smartphone market.  It has all of them beat in price (generally, unless you buy an older phone), but I'm not so sure that's what customers are looking at first and foremost these days.

Let me ask this: would any of you 3DS owners give the system to a 7-year-old, or is it too fragile?  There's no way in hell I would have given the PSP to a kid, but the DS was unbreakable.

I let my 3 Year old use it all the time as a camera and he sometimes try to play games.

...

Yeah, my 18-month old girl plays with my 3DS some of the time. Always supervised, and her playing is limited to PiCTOBiTS (usually the music player) or watching Go Diego Go! on Netflix... but the 3DS doesn't seem to be significantly more fragile than our old DS Lite was.

Quote from: Chozo

Quote from: broodwars

Sony recently reported that PSN sales were up 14% in the months following the PSN hack (and Sony's had a good retail software year).

If that's true that is unfortunate, because heaven knows they don't deserve it after the **** they pulled.

It's going to be up 15% after I get done with it at Christmas. Of course, I'm using a disposable e-mail, and a prepaid credit card or PSN cards. Do I win?

Chozo GhostOctober 28, 2011

Quote from: Shaymin

Quote from: Chozo

Quote from: broodwars

Sony recently reported that PSN sales were up 14% in the months following the PSN hack (and Sony's had a good retail software year).

If that's true that is unfortunate, because heaven knows they don't deserve it after the **** they pulled.

It's going to be up 15% after I get done with it at Christmas. Of course, I'm using a disposable e-mail, and a prepaid credit card or PSN cards. Do I win?

When you support the dark side everyone loses.

Quote from: ejamer

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

The poor exchange rate is definitely the best explanation I've heard for Europe getting the games and NA not getting them.

Weren't the exchange rates worse for Europe than NA, though? And small profit from releasing niche games (and supporting what is left of your core audience) is better than no profit from releasing nothing.


The only explanations that I can see really being viable are:
(1) Nintendo doesn't count small successes, so the risk didn't outweigh the reduced profits
(2) NoA was too busy with other tasks... but since there hasn't been any other games to support and 3DS hasn't even received that big of a campaign, I can't imagine what has kept them so busy that they couldn't get small print runs of a couple games pushed out the door.

Profit would in no way be guaranteed. There is a very real chance they would lose money by releasing those games in North America, and looking at the figures in this article shows that it's not really a good time for Nintendo to be doing things with such a chance to lose money and so little upside. The better exchange-rate-to-price ratio in Europe makes it less of a risk there, which may be why they got it and we didn't

Quote from: Chozo

When you support the dark side everyone loses.

Nice to see that wanting to play the Persona games suddenly makes me part of the 1%.

broodwarsOctober 28, 2011

Quote from: Shaymin

Quote from: Chozo

When you support the dark side everyone loses.

Nice to see that wanting to play the Persona games suddenly makes me part of the 1%.

I sure hope that's Persona 2 and 3 you want to play, because I have Persona 1 on PSP and it is pretty "blah" overall.  I've heard Persona 2 is better, but Personas 3 and 4 are awesome.

YmeegodOctober 28, 2011

"There is a very real chance they would lose money by releasing those games in North America,"

?  No, they wouldn't.  For one they don't have to spend any money on ads because the games are hardcore and those types of gamers already know what's coming.  Two, the can print small builds and since this is an NINTENDO published game then they wouldn't have to pay the royalites like third party games.  All the work is already finished.

If a third party like atlus can make profits will low sales and paying royalites I'm sure Nintendo could have. 

Rough look at the money involved--it's basically $25 ish the publisher takes in out of an $50 game and this type of game would sell easily 100k in but lets use 50K instead.  That's an million bucks for an game that's already BUILT.  Yeah I can if it was localized but that's not the case at all.

Kytim89October 28, 2011

Quote from: Ymeegod

"There is a very real chance they would lose money by releasing those games in North America,"

?  No, they wouldn't.  For one they don't have to spend any money on ads because the games are hardcore and those types of gamers already know what's coming.  Two, the can print small builds and since this is an NINTENDO published game then they wouldn't have to pay the royalites like third party games.  All the work is already finished.

If a third party like atlus can make profits will low sales and paying royalites I'm sure Nintendo could have. 

Rough look at the money involved--it's basically $25 ish the publisher takes in out of an $50 game and this type of game would sell easily 100k in but lets use 50K instead.  That's an million bucks for an game that's already BUILT.  Yeah I can if it was localized but that's not the case at all.


If Nintendo had realized this six months ago then their money woes might have not been so bad.

broodwarsOctober 28, 2011

Yeah, let's not kid ourselves: the Rainfall games would not be huge sellers on par with something like Mario Kart Wii, but they could probably sell 50,000 - 100,000 copies easily with minimal marketing (as if Nintendo of America knows how to do anything else for core-oriented titles).  Assuming that Nintendo of America got a clue and kept the localizations as they were in Europe, costs could be kept to pretty much replication; distribution; and viral marketing.  Unless we had the second coming of Demon's Souls, the titles wouldn't be mega-hits, but they'd probably do respectively and turn Nintendo a small profit.  Nintendo doesn't get a pass on "not wanting to sell niche titles" when small companies like Atlus and Nippon-Ichi USA have turned that into an art form.

And at this point, is Nintendo really in a position to be picky about how it gets money after posting their first annual net loss since the 1980s?

Kytim89October 28, 2011

Quote from: broodwars

Yeah, let's not kid ourselves: the Rainfall games would not be huge sellers on par with something like Mario Kart Wii, but they could probably sell 50,000 - 100,000 copies easily with minimal marketing (as if Nintendo of America knows how to do anything else for core-oriented titles).  Assuming that Nintendo of America got a clue and kept the localizations as they were in Europe, costs could be kept to pretty much replication; distribution; and viral marketing.  Unless we had the second coming of Demon's Souls, the titles wouldn't be mega-hits, but they'd probably do respectively and turn Nintendo a small profit.  Nintendo doesn't get a pass on "not wanting to sell niche titles" when small companies like Atlus and Nippon-Ichi USA have turned that into an art form.

And at this point, is Nintendo really in a position to be picky about how it gets money after posting their first annual net loss since the 1980s?


Someone told me a while agao that Nintendo is too risk advers to release these games in north America after postingtheir first financial loss in decades. I would argue that risk is simply a part of doing business and that Nintendo must realize that they could have easily made some money by releasing these games and saved themselves. Bottom line is that these games will be released in north America in 2012 they would not dissapoint either the fans or Nintendo themselves.

The way to do it, though, would be to actually have Atlus do it. I'm sure they'd jump at the chance to publish these games, and it would eliminate all risk on Nintendo's part if they just let Atlus (or XSEED or whomever) buy the rights for them on the cheap.

broodwarsOctober 28, 2011

Quote from: NWR_insanolord

The way to do it, though, would be to actually have Atlus do it. I'm sure they'd jump at the chance to publish these games, and it would eliminate all risk on Nintendo's part if they just let Atlus (or XSEED or whomever) buy the rights for them on the cheap.

Sure, Atlus would love to sell these games to the Atlus Faithful, but NoA just strikes me as petty with this: they don't think they can make money on these titles, so they need to make sure that no one else can have a chance to prove them wrong.  Because they are Nintendo, and they can never be wrong about anything.  ::)

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorOctober 28, 2011

It's not a case of being petty - it's a case of near absolute-control over Nintendo IPs - something Nintendo is *very* big on... and with good reason.

Chozo GhostOctober 29, 2011

Even if Nintendo lost money by releasing those titles in North America, in a worst case scenario what they would lose would be such a piddly amount that what would it matter? After all the billions Nintendo has printed since 2006 they could afford to risk losing some chump change on a few titles.

I understand not wanting to take MAJOR risks, but its not like releasing these games is going to cause Nintendo to go bankrupt or anything.

Quote from: Luigi

Since the Euro is stronger then the dollar, games in Europe don't need to sell as much as they would in America in order to make profit, which would explain why NOE has had no problem releasing more games during this same time.

Except that premise isn't true. The euro is not doing well either with respect to the yen, and it hasn't changed significantly against the dollar in the past year (they've both been up and down).

Chozo GhostOctober 29, 2011

Maybe there should be some global currency thing so that no one would ever have to mess with exchange rates and all that crap.

Even if there was one global currency, it wouldn't be allowed in the US because your religious right would flip their shit, AND THAT'S AS FAR AS WE CAN GO WITH THIS LINE OF DISCUSSION.

steveyOctober 29, 2011

Quote:

Maybe there should be some global currency thing so that no one would ever have to mess with exchange rates and all that crap.

And who or whos would control that and at what oversight? Even ignoring that, just look at the Great Depression & Gold standard or the European sovereign debt crisis & the Euro for reason why linking all the economies of earth to a single point of failure is a very bad idea.

Chozo GhostOctober 29, 2011

But it would make things more simple and convenient.

nickmitchOctober 30, 2011

And then absolutely terrible weeks later. The last thing the US economy needs is the currency futures market disappearing overnight.

Chozo GhostOctober 30, 2011

Isn't the dollar weak or something? Maybe the best thing to do is scrap the whole thing and start over with something fresh and new. As for who would control it, what about the U.N.? Every country on earth makes up the U.N. and they all have a say in it so in theory everyone would control it and it would be fair.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorOctober 30, 2011

Not only are we getting some very stupid ideas thrown around here, we're also getting political.  Let's end this particular train of thought right now, shall we?

Just as a point, every country is not -as a rule- part of the UN. Note that most of the following states are not universally recognized as independent, but in most cases they have de facto independence.


Kosovo is not in the UN, and likely will struggle to get past the Security Council as multiple members of the Security Council would veto it on the spot (China , Russia). Russia actually has stated publicly that the independence of Kosovo is a "tragedy" and is actively supporting Serb enclaves inside Kosovo.


Taiwan is not a UN member and would have to resolve its situation with China before it could formally join. At present multiple Security Council members have a One China policy (US, China ).


The Vatican City is a "non-member state". It has never asked for admittance to the United Nations and currently holds observer status.


Abkhazia and South Ossetia both declared independence from Georgia. Attempts by Tblisi to reassert control over the breakway regions lead to Russian intervention and occupation of the two break-away republics. Effectively, they are recognized internationally (especially in NATO states) as part of Georgia, however Georgia currently executes no control over them. Russia recognizes their independence.


Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus: Replace "Georgia" with "Cyprus" and "Russia" with "Turkey" in the above paragraph. Their declaration of independence is regarded internationally as illegal as well, except in Turkey who currently occupies the region. They are de facto independent, as Cyprus can execute no control over it.


Western Sahara is weird. The group recognized as its legal representative by the UN is also not in control of the territory. The Moroccan Kingdom currently occupies most of the territory.  On-going negotiations are trying to determine how much local sovereignty will be awarded.


The Palestine Liberation Organization might also become a non-member state in the near future, as they have stated they intend to do should their full-membership bid be denied.

Wow, all that post to correct a minor point on universalist currencies.


Anyway, Japan undertook yet another intervention in the currency market this morning in an attempt to reign in the yen, presumably it will involve a series of cash infusions.

PlugabugzOctober 31, 2011

This is all Unclebob's fault for not buying enough nintendo produce.

Ye shall be punished accordingly.

CericOctober 31, 2011

Quote from: Plugabugz

This is all Unclebob's fault for not buying enough nintendo produce.

Ye shall be punished accordingly.

When did Nintendo start producing Fruits and Vegetables?  I know a lot of their games hint they go that way.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorOctober 31, 2011

I'll have you know, I purchased plenty of Nintendo produce.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ljmqMZyYEjw/TTO35FiSyfI/AAAAAAAAACM/BS2I-lp6h-Y/s400/bananadonkeykong.jpg

I ate so many bananas...

Quote from: UncleBob

I ate so many bananas...

If but this were the funhouse...

Wow, nice thread going here.  All of this political talk without saying what really needs to be said:

NINTENDO IZ TEH DOOMED

CericNovember 04, 2011

Quote from: NWR_Lindy

Wow, nice thread going here.  All of this political talk without saying what really needs to be said:

NINTENDO IZ TEH DOOMED

Stop Killing Kittens Lindy.

Chozo GhostNovember 04, 2011

I remember when there used to be Nintendo cereals with Mario or something. I don't think they are around anymore. Wish they were.

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterNovember 04, 2011

Were there really Donkey Kong bananas?!?!?!?!

Please say yes! My unborn child's childhood could be complete!

CericNovember 04, 2011

Yes, Caterkiller that was a real promotion and I believe that is not the first game they did that with.

UncleBobRichard Cook, Guest ContributorNovember 04, 2011

Quote from: Ceric

Yes, Caterkiller that was a real promotion and I believe that is not the first game they did that with.

Yeah, they did it with Monkey Ball Step & Roll as well.

LithiumNovember 05, 2011

threads like this is why this community is awesome.

CaterkillerMatthew Osborne, Contributing WriterNovember 05, 2011

Quote from: Ceric

Yes, Caterkiller that was a real promotion and I believe that is not the first game they did that with.

Oh my god! In ever even got a chance!!!! At least I got my nintendo fruit snacks.

CericNovember 05, 2011

Quote from: UncleBob

Quote from: Ceric

Yes, Caterkiller that was a real promotion and I believe that is not the first game they did that with.

Yeah, they did it with Monkey Ball Step & Roll as well.

I thought they did that with an even earlier game.  Now I need to find it.  An article on these type of promotions be interesting.  I wonder if a call to Chiquita would get an answer.

Earlier Monkey Ball games had Dole logos on all of the bananas in-game. I thought it was kind of funny that they switched sponsorship to Chiquita.

CericNovember 05, 2011

Like how Dewy had the Aquapods in the game.

TJ SpykeNovember 07, 2011

Crimm, I have to disagree with your list. You include entitites which call themselves countries, that doesn't make them so. They are as legit as that guy in Australia who proclaimed his property as a country. Kosovo and Taiwan are both widely recognized as countries but can not get into the UN for political reasons (China has veto power in the UN and claims Taiwan is part of their country, Serbia claims Kosovo is part of them and Russia is a close ally of Serbia). Abkhazia and South Ossetia are basically not recognized by anyone. 6 countries recognize Abkhazia and 5 recognize South Ossetia (Vanuatu only recognizes Abkhazia). As with Cyprus, they don't control Northern Cyprus because Turkey is illegally occupying it. Something can not be considered a country if no one recognizes them or only a handful do. Here are some other entities that claim to be countries: Somaliland (not recognized),  Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (only recognized by fellow non-countries  Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria), Transnistria (only recognized by fellow non-countries  Abkhazia and South Ossetia). Not to mention the many micro-nations. For all intents and purposes, only Vatican City, Taiwan, and Kosovo are widely recognized as countries but not part of the UN. Vatican City could become a member if it wanted too, the other two want too but can not at this moment for reasons stated already.

Anyways, maybe Nintendo should start putting more paid ads in their games. I remember some people complaining about stuff like Duracell batteries being in Pikmin 2, but it's not a bad idea if done well (EA Sports showed how NOT to do it with Fight Night Round 3).

I loved the product placement in Pikmin 2.

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