Industry to Nintendo, "We finally got you."

[Mr Khan]

Asriel said:

Nintendo are in a tough position--but I think it's a tough position occupied by a formidable company. They have a host of popular IPs, some of the most talented developers in the industry, and a huge war chest of billions of dollars. They can throw enormous weight and support behind their systems when they need too--the DS didn't truly take off worldwide until mid 2006, when the Lite model, NSMB and Brain Training hit the West. I wouldn't write the 3DS off--Iwata has signalled Nintendo's intention to bring out the big guns, starting in summer with the eShop, Zelda, Star Fox and Dead or Alive, and continuing after summer with Super Mario, Kid Icarus, and most importantly, Mario Kart. Also, he's signalled that Nintendo will seek outside help to change the way 3DS and Wii are marketed in the future. The Wii is easy money for Nintendo--even if they 'only' sell 13 million this year, that's still profit on every unit. The Wii software line up right now looks abysmal, but could include anything up to Zelda, Wii Play:Motion, Mario and Sonic at the 2012 Olympics, Kirby, Rythm Heaven, Last Story, Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora's Tower and more for this year--we'll know after E3, but that's enough to keep the system chugging along decently, even though the system won't ever explode again like it did in 2008. They also have the option of further price cuts and re-introducing titles through a Player's Choice range.

We also have very little confirmed information on what Project Cafe truly is, or what kind of third party support the machine is receiving--and we'll only know about this after E3. Any conjecture based on this machine and third parties abandoning it in favour of Sony or MS's future offerings is pointless at this point in time--we don't know enough to speculate seriously yet. The fact is, Nintendo aren't going to dominate the industry as they did a couple of years ago, but they don't need to. Sure, profits are falling as R&D spending increases, but that's what happens with console sales--the DS and Wii cycles are falling off, and the 3DS cycle is only just beginning, with the N6 cycle yet to start. The 3DS is experiencing a rocky start, and sure, the Wii has seen better days, but its better days were sales peaks no other home console has matched. I think suggesting the industry suddenly has Nintendo in the headlights is too alarmist, to be honest. Yes, Nintendo needs to adapt to overcome the challenges facing it, but look at what they've accomplished this decade. They've bunkered down around the classic franchises people know and love while extending their reach to a market many assumed didn't exist. Nothing is certain, but if any company can thrive in a tough place, it's Nintendo.

Aye, and remember that this is the company that, running on only GameCube and GBA, out-profited the PS2 through its heyday. Even in their "bad" direction and sitting at near market-irrelevance on the home console front, Nintendo's one helluva company, and yes, given that warchest, if Nintendo ever decided to get fiscally aggressive, the gaming world had better watch out

The other issue with falling profits is that you have to remember exchange rates, the slouching dollar/pound/Euro means when NCL has to report its profits, it reports them in Yen, making the numbers look worse than they are, as that money is mostly in use abroad

To get tangental at this point, i'll agree that NoA's approach has been lackadaiscal, and that's seemed to be the case since 2008, where they haven't worked that hard at doing much of anything (except for their extraordinary efforts pushing Professor Layton and Dragon Quest IX). Either they need some sort of shakeup, or NCL needs to give them a swift kick in the rear to get them in gear