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Nintendo Profits, Sales Down for Q3 2009

by Jon Lindemann - January 30, 2010, 11:35 am EST
Total comments: 37 Source: Nintendo, Gamasutra

Third-quarter earnings report shows robust sales, but a decline in profits.

Nintendo recently released their financial results for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2009, and along with revealing lifetime sales data for some of their key titles, also detailed a drop in profits year-on-year.

In a statement addressing their financial results for the three quarters ending Dec. 31, 2009, Nintendo stated that their "net sales, operating income, ordinary income, and net income represented the third best corresponding performances in company history, but they all saw a decline from the results of the prior year." Their rationale for the decrease was "year-on-year decreases in Wii hardware and Nintendo DS software sales, a price cut for Wii hardware, and the significant impact of a stronger yen."

Nintendo's net sales declined year-on-year, dropping 23.1 percent to ¥1,182.1 billion ($13.09 billion). Nintendo also reported profits of ¥192.6 billion ($2.1 billion), a 9.4 percent drop year-on-year. However, the company maintained their fiscal year forecast, predicting a net profit of ¥230 billion ($2.55 billion). This would be its first year-on-year profit decline since the introduction of the Wii console in 2006.

NINTENDO ANNOUNCES FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE NINE-MONTHS ENDING DEC. 31, 2009

January 27, 2010 - On January 28, 2009 (Japan time), Nintendo Co., Ltd. reported financial results for the first three fiscal quarters and earnings for the period ending Dec. 31, 2009, and left unchanged prior forecasts for full year global sales and profits.

The nine month figures for net sales, operating income, ordinary income, and net income represented the third best corresponding performances in company history, but they all saw a decline from the results of the prior year. The net sales and operating income declines in comparison to the record-breaking previous year primarily stem from year-on-year decreases in Wii hardware and Nintendo DS software sales, a price cut for Wii hardware, and the significant impact of a stronger yen.

The company also updated life-to-date worldwide unit shipments for its two category-leading brands. Cumulative shipments of Wii hardware now exceed 67 million, along with nearly 510 million software units. For the Nintendo DS franchise that includes Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, and Nintendo DSi, the corresponding lifetime totals now stand at over 125 million portable hardware systems, and over 688 million software units.

Consolidated financial results for April-December 2009 in millions of yen:

Net Sales * Operating Income * Ordinary Income * Net Income

Apr-Dec, 2009 1,182,177 * 296,656 * 314,511 * 192,601

Apr-Dec, 2008 1,536,348 * 501,330 * 352,488 * 212,524

% Change -23.1% * -40.8% * -10.8% * -9.4%

Unit sales in millions:

Apr-Dec 08 * Apr-Dec 09 * LTD * Forecast Apr 09-Mar 10

Nintendo DS

Total Hardware 25.62 * 23.35 * 125.13 * 30

Japan 3.29 * 3.52 * 29.92

The Americas 9.54 * 10.53 * 44.99

Other 12.79 * 9.30 * 50.23

Total Software 163.78 * 121.38 * 688.29 * 150

Japan 27.11 * 25.04 * 171.99

The Americas 64.55 * 56.95 * 261.90

Other 72.11 * 39.38 * 254.41

Wii

Total Hardware 20.52 * 17.05 * 67.45 * 20

Japan 1.89 * 1.76 * 9.72

The Americas 9.80 * 8.48 * 32.02

Other 8.83 * 6.81 * 25.71

Total Software 163.78 * 156.64 * 509.66 * 192*

Japan 11.04 * 12.48 * 46.57

The Americas 90.29 * 82.84 * 275.84

Other 62.46 * 61.32 * 187.24

Talkback

BlackNMild2k1January 30, 2010

The format for your data is very hard to understand.
Maybe you should use a similar format to the one in the Sales thread?

I simply didn't want to spend an hour formatting the table when I knew the information was available elsewhere.

YmeegodJanuary 30, 2010

No big deal.  Profits are still 2 BILLION for one freaking quarter.  Yeah, I'm sure Big N is in tears about this--mostly because they are laughing so hard it's making their sides ache.

KDR_11kJanuary 31, 2010

Quote from: Ymeegod

No big deal.  Profits are still 2 BILLION for one freaking quarter.  Yeah, I'm sure Big N is in tears about this--mostly because they are laughing so hard it's making their sides ache.

Expect the gaming news to act like this is worse than MS's performance.

Chozo GhostJanuary 31, 2010

NINTENDO IZ TEH D00MEDZ!!!!11 THEY ONLY MADE 2.1 BILLION DOLLARS IN PROFIT WHICH MEANS THEY ARE GOING TO GO 3RD PARTY LIKE SEGA!!!!!!!!!1111111

It is notable that sales for both Wii and DS have fallen year-on-year.  It shows that they have finally peaked, and that we can seriously begin to talk about successors to both devices (since you know Nintendo is).

KDR_11kJanuary 31, 2010

The overall sales of the Wii have fallen for the year because of the weak early year, it suddenly started breaking records when New Super Mario Bros Wii came around.

I don't understand how you can argue that sales have peaked when Nintendo had the best month in the history of the medium last month.

BlackNMild2k1January 31, 2010

Quote from: insanolord

I don't understand how you can argue that sales have peaked when Nintendo had the best month in the history of the medium last month.

Thats the point. literally, it rose to heaven and now it has to come back down to earth.
It hit it's peak and there is no where to go but down.

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

Quote from: insanolord

I don't understand how you can argue that sales have peaked when Nintendo had the best month in the history of the medium last month.

Thats the point. literally, it rose to heaven and now it has to come back down to earth.
It hit it's peak and there is no where to go but down.

Yeah, but didn't they say that last year when they sold 3 million DSs and 2 million Wiis?

BlackNMild2k1January 31, 2010

possibly, bit last xmas was the middle point of the cycle too. 3 years. and the 3rd year is when a console usually sells the most. If Nintendo happens to outsell itself again this year, then they are truly breaking trends and defying the cycle.

With the lineup Nintendo has this year, it possible that it could happen, but who would be expecting that?

broodwarsJanuary 31, 2010

Quote from: insanolord

I don't understand how you can argue that sales have peaked when Nintendo had the best month in the history of the medium last month.

It's a Holiday Bounce, one helped greatly by the release of a new Mario game.  I suspect we'll see one when Zelda releases as well (especially if there's another Wii price cut as there was for NSMBW).  Hell, we could even see a spike when Epic Mickey releases, though you have to figure at this point that target audience already has the system.  You take away the holiday season, though, and Wii sales were falling all year.

Besides the falling Wii sales, you have to suspect that part of this loss of profits is R&D on Galaxy 2; Zelda Wii; and Metroid Other M, as well as whatever projects we still don't know about.  It's nothing to be terribly concerned about, but hopefully this spurs Nintendo to be more proactive about letting us know sooner what awesome Wii projects are in the pipeline.

KDR_11kJanuary 31, 2010

Quote from: BlackNMild2k1

Quote from: insanolord

I don't understand how you can argue that sales have peaked when Nintendo had the best month in the history of the medium last month.

Thats the point. literally, it rose to heaven and now it has to come back down to earth.
It hit it's peak and there is no where to go but down.

It hit the peak of 2009 (obviously you aren't going to maintain Christmas sales in January), nothing says they cannot go higher in 2010.

Quote from: broodwars

It's a Holiday Bounce

You mean Christmas sales? That's why it sold more than in, say, October but not why it sold more than any other system ever.

Both systems still have a lot of momentum in Japan and North America, but look at the rest of the world.  While sales of the DS actually went up year-on-year in Japan and NA, they went down by 3.49 million units (27%) everywhere else.  Wii sales dropped across the board, but especially outside of Japan and NA where they were down by 2.02 million units (23%).

Nintendo is by no means struggling, but the worldwide growth of both systems is finally slowing down.

Chozo GhostJanuary 31, 2010

Sales may be declining in Europa, Australia, and elsewhere because these regions don't get as much love in terms of games being localized for those markets. Japan gets the lions share of the games, and NA also gets a large percentage... everywhere else gets the scraps.

Ian SaneFebruary 01, 2010

A typical console lasts five years before it's replaced with a successor.  The Wii peaking at this point would be normal and expected.  It's not a problem.  The Wii is a successful console and now Nintendo has to follow it up.  How long did you expect the Wii to last?  Anything longer than six years sounds INSANE to me.  It's due for a follow-up.

Nintendo gets all uppity about everyone already owning a DS and thus hardware sales dropping.  That's a GOOD thing.  It's the best case scenario.  If everyone who would ever want a Wii already owns one then mission accomplished.  Now bust out the Super Wii and try to do it again.

Chozo GhostFebruary 01, 2010

Quote from: Ian

A typical console lasts five years before it's replaced with a successor.  The Wii peaking at this point would be normal and expected.  It's not a problem.  The Wii is a successful console and now Nintendo has to follow it up.  How long did you expect the Wii to last?  Anything longer than six years sounds INSANE to me.  It's due for a follow-up.

I'm sure Nintendo is hard at work on a successor. As a matter of fact, its a fact confirmed by quotes that Nintendo immediately begins work on the successor system the moment they complete work on the current system. Nintendo owns a hardware division, and just like its software developers Nintendo doesn't pay them to just sit around and do nothing. When they finish one thing, they instantly begin work on the next.

So we can say with reasonable certainty that the Wii's successor has been in the works since late 2006, and arguably even well before that... like whenever the Wii hardware went gold.

As for how far along they are, who knows? It might only exist as scribbles on a drawing board at this point, or it may even be into the prototype stage with software mockups being created. Who knows? But we won't hear anything about it this year, and probably not next year either. I predict it will either be a late 2011 release or a 2012 release.

Nintendo would have an edge if they released it for holiday 2011 I think, because then they would have a system which leapfrogs the PS3 in terms of horsepower and would have a chance of wiping the floor with the PS3 before it has a chance to really build up momentum. Just like Sony has said, the PS3 probably will be a 10 year lifespan console, and there's really no reason why that shouldn't be true, because what could Sony create that could justify another console in the near future? 2D gaming is nearing the upper limit of what can be achieved in video gaming. At some point (probably not in the near future) we will need to make another leap to bring about 3D gaming, but before that can even happen 3D televisions would have to start taking off in a big way, and that won't be for awhile.

So the next Console Nintendo creates is one they can probably sit on for a long while and if it is still in direct competition with the PS3 and 360 then it will be the most powerful one of all of them.

KDR_11kFebruary 02, 2010

3D display gaming isn't all that hard (doesn't take much processing power, movies have more trouble because they are stored in 2D but games are already full of 3D data so all you need is a minor rendering tweak), it's been available on the PC pretty much since 3D graphics exist. It never took off though. What will be more of a problem for Nintendo is finding a reason for people to buy a new console. Just making it have HD console graphics won't make it an automatic seller as Sony and Microsoft already found out the hard way this generation. Iwata has been expressing that the whole time but it looks like the press prefers to listen to dimwit Pachter instead of the people who are actually in charge. Making the Wii better was already done with Motion Plus and there are more ways to improve the Wii with addons, a new console would have to offer something that couldn't be done on the Wii at all AND makes people actually want it. The Gamecube route of "better graphics, same old shit" doesn't fly and would make Nintendo the #3 in the console market again.

Ian SaneFebruary 02, 2010

Quote:

What will be more of a problem for Nintendo is finding a reason for people to buy a new console. Just making it have HD console graphics won't make it an automatic seller as Sony and Microsoft already found out the hard way this generation.


I think the sheer fact that the PS3 and X360 exist and crush the Wii in graphics capabilities is enough justification for a new Wii.  The Wii doesn't support HDTVs and that makes it out-of-date.  Just keeping up-to-date is a pretty good reason to upgrade.  A lot of people own HDTVs now and I'm sure a lot of them would like to be able to play Wii Sports 3 in HD.

And Motion+ demonstrates the ability for the remote to go further so at the very least we'll get a better controller.  And I figure since new hardware would allow for easy porting between all three consoles the third party support would greatly improve.  So maybe people just noticing the Wii 2 having more games than the Wii ever did would be sufficient enough.

The Wii is also trendy technology and the same idiots who update their iPod and cellphone every year would probably also be all over the idea of upgrading their Wii.  It isn't about what it does for them, it's the status of having the newest trendy gadget.  The Wii has the world's attention now so a new Wii will grab their interest.  Hell Nintendo has just introduced the DSi and what the HELL does that really do to justify a purchase?  Doesn't matter.  The DS is trendy so they just have to make a minor change and people will fork over the dough to have the latest model.

And when you come down to it the Wii sold because it had that game everyone wanted in Wii Sports.  So they just need a new game that has that sort of appeal.

Plus, you know, you just STOP MAKING REGULAR WII games and force everyone to upgrade if they want to play new games.  It's how the whole console model works.  If the Wii audience wants to continue playing videogames they'll buy the next Wii.  And if that audience doesn't want to continue playing videogames then the whole thing was just a fad and Nintendo failed.  The Wii userbase should want to continue playing videogames and thus jump through the hoops required to keep doing so.

Quote from: Ian

A typical console lasts five years before it's replaced with a successor.  The Wii peaking at this point would be normal and expected.  It's not a problem.  The Wii is a successful console and now Nintendo has to follow it up.  How long did you expect the Wii to last?  Anything longer than six years sounds INSANE to me.  It's due for a follow-up.

Nintendo gets all uppity about everyone already owning a DS and thus hardware sales dropping.  That's a GOOD thing.  It's the best case scenario.  If everyone who would ever want a Wii already owns one then mission accomplished.  Now bust out the Super Wii and try to do it again.

Ian Sane: Voice of Reason.

...wow, never thought I'd type that out.

TJ SpykeFebruary 02, 2010

The Wii just had the best selling month in the history of video games and some people think Nintendo should be stupid and replace it already?

Ian, less than half of households own a HDTV, so not being HD is no big deal. Even if they did release its successor and stopped supporting it (which would be insane), it sells so well that third parties would continue to support it. The Wii is the only system this gen that actually could last 10 years.

BlackNMild2k1February 02, 2010

Less than half of household own a HDTV.
probably half of those don't have anything HD hooked up to it, and it they do, they are likely watching SD contend through HD connections.

Most HDTV's are bought for size, not resolution, since most consumers probably either don't really notice the difference or just didn't care all that much.

That being said, I really don't expect another update to Wii (besides color*) till Xmas 2011 at the earliest.


*where is my black Wii :moonface:

Chozo GhostFebruary 02, 2010

I think we got it all wrong about their being a "Wii 2". There probably won't be such a system per se, and what we might have instead is incremental hardware revisions that bump the Wii up by tiny bits at a time on an evolutionary scale rather than a revolutionary one.

What we've seen with the DS --> DSi is probably a good blueprint for what Nintendo will do with the Wii as well. For one thing, its the same company so why not? Furthermore, this is a strategy that seems to work. The DSi beefed up the hardware capabilities of the DS a fair bit, added in music, a camera, internet, etc. But is the DSi a new system? No, not really. It is a DS 1.5 rather than a DS 2. Or actually perhaps merely a DS 1.3 or 1.2 really..

So why wouldn't this work with the Wii as well?

Instead of Nintendo pushing out a Wii 2.0, we might get a Wii 1.5 which beefs up the processor speed, RAM, internal storage, and also adds in HD without actually being a new system or breaking compatibility or anything of that sort.

Granted, a Wii 1.5 probably still won't be as powerful as a PS3 or 360, but that doesn't matter because it would be CLOSE ENOUGH. Then a couple more years down the road when Wii 1.5 starts to show its age, Nintendo can pop out Wii 2.0 which would be another incremental advancement over 1.5 but not really anything revolutionary or anything.

broodwarsFebruary 02, 2010

I don't know about that.  For one thing, something you have with the Wii that the DS did not have is internal memory.  If I'm going to buy a Wii 1.5, I sure as hell want to transfer all my old Wii data over to it.  Right now, that data's locked to the Wii that downloaded it, and I'm not sure that profit-focused Nintendo will just let us bring it over easily.  Of course, given that Wii 1.5 probably won't have GameCube support, I'm not sure I'd upgrade anyway.  Also, has there been a single substantive DSi game so far since the system launched?  Companies seem hesitant to actually take advantage of that extra power of the DSi, because they want the bigger pot of the DS standard audience.  3rd parties already have trouble selling Wii software, so why would they want to shift to the even niche-er audience of the Wii 1.5 if Nintendo's still going to be supporting the original Wii?

I think it's a pipe-dream that the Wii will last a 10 year life cycle as the dominant Nintendo console, not when HD TV adoption rate continues to increase and companies really start showing what the PS3 and 360 can do (now with motion control as well).  It took both a price cut and the release of a new 2D Mario game to get the Wii selling consoles in record numbers again, and I'm not sure how many more holiday seasons Nintendo can keep the sales surging like that.  The Wii probably has 1-2 more years of good sales left in it, and then it'll be time to move on.  That's nothing against the Wii, just the nature of hardware life cycles and the Wii has plenty of technical room to grow where the PS3 and 360 cannot.  Nintendo will panic whenever hardware sales start to dip again.

I thik there are still plenty of people who don't have HDTVs, like me, but I do think that's it's starting to get adopted more and more. Of course, this is a moot point, since Iwata's already said that their next system will prob be HD capable.

HOWEVER, the question is whether Nintendo can just rest on their laurels and release a console that's a "Super Wii." I don't think Iwata's in the mindset to do that, I think he's looking for the next differentiator, or angle, to "justify" or "disrupt" the way things are.

That said, I think he's got time. The Wii's probably got another good year or two in it, what with a slew of further Nintendo games for the system in the near future, still waiting for DQX, maturing Motion Plus and Balance Board use, and a whole lotta room for price drops. Let's not forget, the wii is at $200 still. Next price drop will bring it into crazy land.

KDR_11kFebruary 03, 2010

A console upgrade is a major step and the console must provide a similarly major advantage over the old one.

Quote from: Ian

Quote:

What will be more of a problem for Nintendo is finding a reason for people to buy a new console. Just making it have HD console graphics won't make it an automatic seller as Sony and Microsoft already found out the hard way this generation.


I think the sheer fact that the PS3 and X360 exist and crush the Wii in graphics capabilities is enough justification for a new Wii.  The Wii doesn't support HDTVs and that makes it out-of-date.  Just keeping up-to-date is a pretty good reason to upgrade.  A lot of people own HDTVs now and I'm sure a lot of them would like to be able to play Wii Sports 3 in HD.

Like to and pay to are different. The Wii succeeded by making a step ahead that people were willing to pay for moreso than HD, a Wii HD would by itself not be enough to convince many people to buy.

Quote from: Ian

And Motion+ demonstrates the ability for the remote to go further so at the very least we'll get a better controller.  And I figure since new hardware would allow for easy porting between all three consoles the third party support would greatly improve.  So maybe people just noticing the Wii 2 having more games than the Wii ever did would be sufficient enough.

Motion + can enhance it but do people genuinely care about those enhancements? Do they even understand what those enhancements do?

Quote:

The Wii is also trendy technology and the same idiots who update their iPod and cellphone every year would probably also be all over the idea of upgrading their Wii.  It isn't about what it does for them, it's the status of having the newest trendy gadget.  The Wii has the world's attention now so a new Wii will grab their interest.  Hell Nintendo has just introduced the DSi and what the HELL does that really do to justify a purchase?  Doesn't matter.  The DS is trendy so they just have to make a minor change and people will fork over the dough to have the latest model.

The main market here is people who don't care about being on the bleeding edge. DS revisions sell but they are minor revisions and the majority does NOT upgrade to the latest revision. If you made a new console would you be happy with getting those people who would buy any revision only? How would you handle the software support there? WiiHD-only games would leave out all the Wii owners and without major steps ahead the Wii owners won't bother to pay hundreds of dollars again.

Quote:

And when you come down to it the Wii sold because it had that game everyone wanted in Wii Sports.  So they just need a new game that has that sort of appeal.

Easier said than done, especially in a way that demonstrates why this new doodad is better than the old one. If the result could have been done on the Wii (with a controller add-on maybe) it wouldn't be convincing. Overall it sounds like a needless uphill battle for no real reason. If the next system really only had better graphics that would leave Nintendo vulnerable to a competitor offering a more substantial upgrade and people going with that instead.

Quote:

Plus, you know, you just STOP MAKING REGULAR WII games and force everyone to upgrade if they want to play new games.  It's how the whole console model works.  If the Wii audience wants to continue playing videogames they'll buy the next Wii.  And if that audience doesn't want to continue playing videogames then the whole thing was just a fad and Nintendo failed.  The Wii userbase should want to continue playing videogames and thus jump through the hoops required to keep doing so.

The Wii userbase seems fairly content to continue playing the videogames they already own if there's nothing new of interest coming up. You don't want to end up in a Sony situation where the last gen system is more popular than the current one. Sony had a ton of users with Singstar and Buzz but they couldn't make those transition to the PS3 because the games didn't benefit from the PS3.

Chozo GhostFebruary 03, 2010

Quote from: Ian

If the Wii audience wants to continue playing videogames they'll buy the next Wii.

You mean if they want to continue playing new and current video games. Bear in mind, there are many people out there still playing their NES, SNES, N64, etc. and haven't made the leap to modern gaming. Maybe they haven't because they can't afford it, or maybe they just don't give a shit. I don't know how many times I've went to someone's house and the only gaming console they had was an SNES or Genesis or something like that. The Wii could very easily end up the same way, and when you consider its appeal to non-gamers like the elderly and so forth who usually don't even buy games I suspect that will make it even more true.

You have to agree there are some Wii owners out there who bought the system with Wii Sports, and/or possibly Wii Play and Wii Fit and that's it for them. These people will probably never buy hardcore games, and they may not bother buying other casual games either because they are content with the ones they have. A new generation of consoles won't change anything. Even if these people have HD tvs they aren't playing games where graphics mean anything, so why would they want to make the upgrade?

For many people out there the Wii is the only system they own, and possibly the only system they will EVER own for the rest of their lives.

Ian SaneFebruary 03, 2010

Quote:

Even if they did release its successor and stopped supporting it (which would be insane), it sells so well that third parties would continue to support it.


What third parties?  The ones that treat the Wii like a joke and then wonder why all their games bomb?  The Wii will continue to sell entirely based on these games, HOW?  Nintendo carries the Wii on it's back.  They cease to support it it will dry up.  All these Wii owners are buying Nintendo games like Wii Fit and NSMB Wii.  Nintendo's games are what make it a success.

As for HD those of you talking about how not everyone has one yet and such, do you guys think at ALL about the future?  How long do you honestly expect not supporting HD to be considered even remotely acceptable?  We're talking about a consumer device that connects to televisions.  The assumption should be that it would support ALL commonly used video inputs and that include HDMI.  Nintendo was taking a risk by not including it in the first place.  Obviously the successor HAS to support it.  TV has changed.  Nintendo has to adapt.

Nintendo didn't re-invent the wheel with the GBA and it was a successful follow-up to the GBC.  Sony didn't re-invent the wheel with the PS2.  You don't have to go nutty, a boost in graphics quality and few tweaks is good enough.  The Wii was a big risk in that the remote could have been completely rejected.  If Nintendo goes nuts with a new control scheme again they run the risk of turning off the audience they've just won over.  I think you want to keep things somewhat similar to what they're already used to.

And a DSi style upgrade is just a big "fuck you" to your customers.  They're arrogant pricks just asking to lose if they do that.  They might succeed this time but they'll just be preparing their own eventual fall.  Don't get cocky.  That's how Atari, Sony and Nintendo themselves all lost.

People spend money on worthless shit they don't need all the time if it's trendy.  The idiots that pay extra money for Starbucks when their office provides FREE coffee will fucking buy a Wii 2.

KDR_11kFebruary 03, 2010

Obviously the successor to the Wii will have HD but making a successor that's merely a Wii with better graphics would destroy Nintendo. With the disruption they changed the rules of the console market, making the same system with better graphics is no longer sufficient (and neither is making the same games with better graphics which is tripping those third parties up). Making a new console would be based around the question "how do we sell this to people who didn't buy a Wii?" and I don't think the number of people who refused to buy the Wii solely due to weaker graphics is significant enough to warrant the investment.

The Wii is like a new NES, making a SNES to it would just get fewer users because it can only recapture users from before, not gain new ones.

There won't be a DSi style upgrade, Nintendo doesn't do that with consoles. They've always done handheld revisions but console revisions are rare. Think about it, the console is just a block that you shove a disc into to connect your controller to the TV, it isn't nearly as important as the controller you are holding so things like the Wavebird were better revisions than replacing the box under the TV that you ignore anyway.

Chozo GhostFebruary 03, 2010

Quote from: Ian

The assumption should be that it would support ALL commonly used video inputs and that include HDMI.  Nintendo was taking a risk by not including it in the first place.  Obviously the successor HAS to support it.  TV has changed.  Nintendo has to adapt.

Nintendo took some big risks this generation, but not supporting HD was absolutely not one of those risks. It was actually the safest and least risky course to choose. Supporting HD made the PS3 and 360 insanely expensive consoles, and it made development costs a lot higher. These were risks Nintendo didn't take, but the competition did, and we see how things have worked out.

The Wii wouldn't be as successful as it is now if it had included HD and the reason is because both the console and the games would have been much more costly as a result. Aside from the motion controls, the big thing the Wii had going for it was it only cost $249 when its competitors were $500 or even $600. I don't care how much better graphics look, no one wants to spend lots of money on video games.

Look at every generation of video gaming and you will see the weakest system has always pulled ahead. It isn't because gamers hate the best graphics, its because they love the best price. Weaker consoles almost always cost less, and therefore they are more appealing to consumers.

So this was not only not a risk for Nintendo to leave HD out, but it would have been TAKING A RISK if Nintendo had included it. Becuase if they did the console would have likely cost $100 more (and/or been sold at a loss), and the MSRP of the games would be $60 instead of $49. Both of those factors would have made the Wii less attractive to consumers, and the higher development cost of doing HD would have diminished turd party support. I know the turd parties suck and are treating the Wii like a toilet which they dump their shovelware on, but if the games were expensive to make then that shovelware wouldn't be there. We wouldn't have quality games, what we would have is nothing at all. So I guess at least this way we are getting cheaply and quickly made shovelware instead of nothing, ala the GC.

And as for your comment about HD having HDMI connections, okay, but who cares? Every HD TV I've seen does indeed have HDMI ports, but you know what? Every HD tv also has RCA and component connections as well. Connecting a Wii to an HD tv is never an issue. And most people still do not own HD tvs, and back in 2006 that was certainly even more true.

So again, this was a shrewd move on Nintendo's party. They were playing it safe actually. It is the inclusion of HD that would have been the bigger gamble, and it is a gamble the competition has lost. As the facts will prove...

Chozo GhostFebruary 03, 2010

Quote from: Ian

As for HD those of you talking about how not everyone has one yet and such, do you guys think at ALL about the future?  How long do you honestly expect not supporting HD to be considered even remotely acceptable?  We're talking about a consumer device that connects to televisions.  The assumption should be that it would support ALL commonly used video inputs and that include HDMI.  Nintendo was taking a risk by not including it in the first place.  Obviously the successor HAS to support it.  TV has changed.  Nintendo has to adapt.

Ian, as you know Blu-ray won that war it had with HD-DVD, but despite that its adoption rate has been a major disappointment for Sony. It seems that consumers just don't give much of a shit about HD this and graphics that. Wii Sports looks like an N64 era game, but its kicking the ass of anything that's been made on HD. Consumers simply don't care.

The only ones who care about HD at all are elitist technophiles (a very small minority of consumers, mind you), and the big-wigs over at Sony and other companies. These are the only ones who give a rats ass at all about HD. Everyone else doesn't even care, and if you put it in front of them they probably won't even be able to notice the difference. What they do notice is that one costs ridiculously more than the other.

You seem to have bought into the corporate HD bandwagon espoused by Sony and so forth. Meanwhile, the majority of consumers are having fun watching DVD movies on their Standard definition TVs and DVD players and playing SD games like Wii Sports.

And the proof of this is right there in front of you if you look at the sales. Blu-rays adoption has been far less than Sony had hoped, and the same is true with the PS3 and all things HD.

You may be right that at some point Nintendo will be "forced" to make a change to HD, but this will be years from now and by then we will be in a new generation of gaming.

Yes, HD is not as popular as it could be now, but SD is on the way out.  It'll take a while though, maybe 10 years, but that doesn't mean that devices can't move things forward at an accelerated rate.  HD just doesn't have a killer app at the moment, but that doesn't mean that people absolutely don't care about it.  It's just that there isn't something out there that has MADE them upgrade yet.

However, do you think that the next TV people buy is going to be HD?  I do.  But expensive TVs aren't something you buy more than maybe once in a decade, so you aren't going to see HD adoption overnight.  Nintendo would be wise to at least cater to it in some respect; ignoring it outright will look sillier and sillier over the next few years.

Chozo GhostFebruary 03, 2010

I don't think HD will ever get this "killer app" because it can't do anything different than what SD can do. It can only make things look a tiny bit better, but that's it. There's absolutely nothing different besides aesthetics.

Ian SaneFebruary 03, 2010

To me this HD thing is like if Nintendo released the NES with coaxial being the only option and all of you would have been fine with it.  The Gamecube supports component video.  It was not something that was widely used.  But if people had the TV that supported it it was a nice feature to have and one widely expected from a consumer electronic that connected to a television.  I don't live in the US.  I don't know what things are like there.  But with the people I know I'm the old fuddy duddy for using an SDTV and being perfectly content with it.  Do stores even carry anything but HDTV's these days?  I just looked at the TV's on BestBuy.ca and every single one was HD.  You think Nintendo not supporting the features of EVERY TV IN THE ****ING STORE is okay for the foreseeable future?

I also think it's silly to assume that crappy ass graphics are part of the Wii's success.  It's not like if Wii Sports looked good it would have bombed.  And the "rule" about weakest hardware fails with Nintendo's own SNES which SMOKED the Genesis in sounds and graphics and won the 16-bit generation.  All of Nintendo's previous consoles were also the TOP hardware at the time of release with the exception of the Cube which launched with the Xbox, but was still cutting edge for the time.  The Wii is the oddball.  It is the only console I can think of where they INTENTIONALLY borked the hardware.  The NES being weaker than the Sega Master System doesn't mean squat.  The SMS came out after.  The NES at the time was a monster compared to the Ataris and Colecovisions it was replacing.

I guess what I'm asking is do you think Nintendo should match the current PS3 hardware with the Wii 2?  The PS3 costs $300 which is well within the realm of affordibility.  If Nintendo matched that in the next two years it would be a good price point and the PS3 is probably not getting replaced because it would take another $600 disaster to do so.

Quote:

Making a new console would be based around the question "how do we sell this to people who didn't buy a Wii?" and I don't think the number of people who refused to buy the Wii solely due to weaker graphics is significant enough to warrant the investment.

That's a weird business model.  What's wrong with just getting the existing Wii userbase to buy another console and give you repeat business?  If you just focus on who isn't buying your product you risk losing those that already are.  You know who didn't buy a Wii?  The people that cared about graphics capabilities and decent third party support and weren't impressed by motion control.  How do you get those people to buy a Wii 2 unless you do what I'm suggesting?  The Wii is mainstream.  There's no vast untapped market.  Nintendo tapped it last gen.

YmeegodFebruary 03, 2010

I think Big N would have been better off with a bit more power myself.  Why?  Multiplatform titles.  The GC recieved alot a ports simply because it really didn't cost much to port it over the only thing lacking was disc space.  The WII actually has the same disc storage space as the Xbox but it lacks power meaning the developers have to remake the game instead of just porting.  Yeah Big N wins in profits but the gamer suffers.

I think Big N will have to come out in 2012-2013 myself.  Why?  In the US the WII continues to kill the others but in Japan the WII sales have slacked off so the PS3 is gaining a bit of steam.  Controlling the Japanese market is going get interesting this year and I'm guessing Sony's going gain 10% back of the market.  MS is still dead weight over there so.

Chozo GhostFebruary 03, 2010

Quote from: Ian

To me this HD thing is like if Nintendo released the NES with coaxial being the only option and all of you would have been fine with it.  The Gamecube supports component video.  It was not something that was widely used.  But if people had the TV that supported it it was a nice feature to have and one widely expected from a consumer electronic that connected to a television.  I don't live in the US.  I don't know what things are like there.  But with the people I know I'm the old fuddy duddy for using an SDTV and being perfectly content with it.  Do stores even carry anything but HDTV's these days?  I just looked at the TV's on BestBuy.ca and every single one was HD.  You think Nintendo not supporting the features of EVERY TV IN THE ****ING STORE is okay for the foreseeable future?

A few things to say here:

1) Every NEW TV in a store seems to be HD, yeah, but TVs in a store is one thing, TVs in homes is another. How often do people upgrade their tvs? Since TVs aren't cheap I suspect many people use them until they die, and then get a new one. When they do odds are what they get will be HD, but this is going to be a slow process that takes years.

2) The Wii works fine on HD tvs. I know this for a fact because my Wii is hooked up to the only HD tv in the house. I also have a non-HD DVD player hooked up to that HD tv and it works just fine on that as well.

3) Do I think Nintendo not supporting HD is fine for the foreseeable future? As a matter of fact, yes. It isn't like the Wii won't work on an HD tv, so no one is being forced to make an upgrade. This isn't like DTV where you had to upgrade or your TV would stop working. The Wii will work just as well on an HD ad an SD. It won't spit out HD graphics on either one, but that is fine by me and by most people for that matter.

Quote from: Ian

I also think it's silly to assume that crappy ass graphics are part of the Wii's success.  It's not like if Wii Sports looked good it would have bombed.  And the "rule" about weakest hardware fails with Nintendo's own SNES which SMOKED the Genesis in sounds and graphics and won the 16-bit generation.

But the 16-bit generation was the ONLY exception to the rule of weaker hardware always winning. There was never another generation (that I know of) where that was the case. Also, that generation was extremely close and it wasn't really a run-away victory for the SNES, which really only began to pull ahead in the later years of that era. I think a lot of the SNES success had to do with the failure of SEGA's Genesis add-ons which ruined customer confidence in the company. And also because SEGA was moving on with its Saturn thing while Nintendo was still plodding ahead for another year on the SNES.

Some really killer SNES games came out in the final years of its life that are hard to believe were done on 16-bit hardware. Hell, games like Super Mario RPG, DKC, and Killer Instinct looked as good as or even better than PS1 games.

But that's going offtopic... all I'm saying is every rule has an exception and the 16-bit generation was that exception of the weaker system always winning rule. But even then it was a close fight, and there's never been another generation with that coke/pepsi style duopoly of the videogame market.

BlackNMild2k1February 03, 2010

The next Wii will be HD, Iwata has said this already, so what are you guys arguing about?

As far as HDTV adoption.... it's good. But why is it good?
To the average consumer it's not because you can watch movies or TV in HD, it's because of form factor. Throw out that old 32" tv that takes up the space of a La-Z-Boy(& weighs about the same too), throw out that 55"  projection that takes up more space than the dining room table(& heavy as a car) and get an even bigger TV that has widescreen and gets rid of those black bars, a bigger TV that fits on this small shelf or hangs directly on the wall, this bigger TV that only weighs 25 lbs.

As a matter of fact, if you need a new TV you will have to look far and wide to even find a store that sells anything but HDTV's.

So it's not a question of will the Wii2 be HD, it a question of what else is the Wii2 gonna do besides HD and wiimote+ that is gonna make everyone want to rush out and buy it.

& I still stand by the prediction of Xmas 2011 (depending on how Xmas 2010 goes).

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