Iwata: Wii U/3DS will cater to core gamers first, mass market second

[Mr Khan]

famousringo said:

Mr Khan said:

Not really. Nintendo's in a solid position moving forward with the 3DS, and so long as they avoid taking a hit on Wii U hardware, they should do well enough on that front financially. Sony as a whole struggles, but the PS division is supposedly strong (and would likely be preserved or spun off in any major bankruptcy restructuring), and Microsoft as a whole is now in great position, and so long as they don't have another Xbox 1 or RRoD-type financial debacle, they too should be good going forward.

The issue is whether the industry as a whole is stagnating, but its clear that, for the moment, there is room for everyone.

A 30% price cut within the first year of launch is not a solid position for the 3DS. Nor is Nintendo taking its first quarterly loss in decades. It could be argued that Gamecube Nintendo was in a stronger position than the Nintendo of today. We can only guess about how good or bad the Wii U will perform, but it's in an even more competitive space than the 3DS and doesn't benefit as much from the confidence of past performance.

At least Nintendo can say they made a net profit this past generation. Is Playstation strong? Or is it just strong compared to Sony's other consumer electronics? A quote from Sony's latest financials:

"Categories contributing to the deterioration in operating results... include... the game business, reflecting higher marketing costs to promote network service platforms and lower sales of PlayStation®3 hardware due to a strategic price reduction."

The PS3 has seen sporadic bursts of minor profitability overshadowed by long stretches of enormous losses. And Vita sure doesn't look like it's going to save Sony's bacon in the gaming market.

As for MS, Entertainment and Devices is losing money again, and the finger is pointed at soft gaming sales. The Xbox 360 is in a similar position to Sony (alternating huge losses with smaller profits), the big difference being that Xbox's parent company still has lots of cash to burn on maintaining its strategic foothold in the living room.

Right now, the console market is like a casino. The house keeps winning, but the players interpret that to mean that a big jackpot is overdue, so they keep placing bets. It's not sustainable. They can't keep placing bets if they don't start winning some rounds.

I did say "moving forward" in regards to the 3DS, a movement towards breaking-even and a strengthening lineup with better all-demographic appeal, and so long as Nintendo keeps things on solid financial footing, the Wii U should be fine however it fares on sales levels.

I must stop listening to fanboys in regards to the financial results of the other two. I had assumed they were on strong footing from what was being said.