Topic: Reggie Fils-Aime Responds to Declining Wii Sales

[nickmitch]

Well, I don't have exact numbers on that, but Nintendo's gross profit margin went from about 32% (quarter ended March 31) to about 17% (quarter ended Sept 30) and was close to 11% in quarter in between. If not a loss, then they're certainly cutting it close.

[Chozo Ghost]

From what I understand they were making $100 markup on the 3DS before the price drop. So since it was an $80 price drop there should still be a $20 profit on each 3DS sold.

[nickmitch]

If you're taking MSRP less the cost of materials, then a $20 difference is gonna result in Nintendo not making money on selling units. Hell, retailers would probably get the whole $20, leaving Nintendo breaking even before supply chain costs.

[Chocobo_Rider]

@defalcos

Don't forget they could also just play the unopened Wii games on their backlog.  Or the Wii gems they skipped because it came out at the same time as God of Assassins' Duty: World at Warcraft.

You know what really bugs me about that?  I am a middle and high school teacher and I hear waaaay too often that the Wii sucks because it doesn't have those games you mentioned.  I even heard one of them say, with agreement from others, "If it doesn't put a gun in my hand, I don't want to play it." Urgh! I even had one student sell his copy of Skyward Sword he got for Christmas (before he even opened it) for a pair a freakin' sunglasses. Didn't even care to know if the game was fun or not. And they're a bunch of hypocrites, too. Most of the time they will play Wii sports up at the school all the while loudly proclaiming that they never play the Wii. It's an image thing or something.

Unfortunately, most of the people who read this forum have already played the Wii backlog and everyone else wouldn't dare be caught reading something with Nintendo on it.  Remember when it was COOL to play a variety of games on a system no matter what genre it was? The same guys I hung out with as a kid would play Contra and Double Dragon with me one day and then the next day could sit for a spell and take turns playing Tecmo Bowl, Castlevania, or Dragon Warrior. It was all the same to us because it was ALL FUN.

You hit the nail on the head, brother.  That was one of the best posts I've ever read ^_^

My "formative" years as a gamer with with the 2600 and the NES, but my gamer-hood was solidified during the SNES/Genesis era.  You know how I spent that console "war"? Half the time having my best friend come over and play Genesis, the other half going to his house to play SNES.

I think 1% of our game discussion was about whose platform was "better" and that was always completely playful banter.  The rest of the time we would just be saying how awesome our mutual collections were and telling each other what to buy so that the other one could reap the benefits!