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Play4Fun on 05 January 2012
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scottie said:
Rpruett said:
Nintendo.

They live and die the most by their systems. Microsoft and Sony have sustainable business elsewhere to prop their companies up if things go South for a generation or two.

Nintendo is unique but they won a price war this generation that's all, The fact that HD consoles combined outsold the Wii by a large margin is a telling statement. It sold on price and gimmick at the start of the generation and survived awhile on some solid games. Unfortunately it's over and it has been consistently outsold for much of the year.

But for Nintendo all it will take is a bad handheld/console generation or two and it might call it quits. The Wii really saved them. Additionally, I would wager most Nintendo owners primarily buy a Nintendo for Nintendo published games specifically as their third party hasn't been good since SNES days. This makes them an obvious candidate to end up as a publisher on superior Hardware.


Yeah, I agree. as soon as Nintendo have a bad home console generation or two they will call it quits.

 

I predict that after the Wii U, they will release a console called the N64, and it will sell around 30 million. That's one bad generation right there, and they might call it quits after that. but if they don't, they will call their next console the GC, and it will sell worse, barely over 20 million. That's two bad generations in a row - surely after that they will call it quits...

Nintendo has has large amounts of money stacked up and is in no debt unlike Sony. For them to go out of business they would have to fail badly in the handheld market, the console market and have very low software sales in both. They were raking in profits even with the GC.

Since, Nintendo sells consoles at a profit or very small loss and their software are so universally popular they are currently nowhere near getting out. Even if Wii U only sells 30 million, the console will sell enough hardware and software for them to make nice profits. They don't take big losses on consoles like Sony and MS do. Smart business for a gaming-only company.

Based on the current state of the three the only one who would be likely to leave if they failed next gen is Sony. If Vita doesn't do as well as PSP and if they take even more losses with PS4 thanks to stiff competition from MS and Nintendo, that could very well drive them out of the industry. It doesn't matter if they have other branches when those  are not doing well either. If they reach a point where the gaming sector is dragging them down even more, they could very well cut it out (though it would make more sense to cut something else out instead since their gaming sector is one of the most profitable).

MS has large amounts of cash and their long-term goal is to become the entertainment centre of people's living room which they seem to be on the path to currently. So even though they have taken so much loss since coming into the console business, I can't see them getting out unless they reach a point where they have taken so much losses they decide it isn't worth it anymore.

 

Edit: This is for Rpruett, sry.