| Train wreck said: Popular opinion is that a company dealing in consumer electronics should post a profit during the biggest retail season of the year. Nintendo was only able to make 250 million with high 3DS, DS and Wii shipments and high software shipments. This holiday season, the DS was heavily discounted and Wii had a price cut and total shipments are down 50-60%, along with ds and wii software. 3DS is flat year on year and no major releases in the west (and the 3DS and XL were heavily discounted) and the Wii U has been a debacle. I will be surprised if Nintendo post any operating income this quarter (and that would only come because of favorable exchange rates, which I think will be a small catalyst) |
Your senseless Nintenod-aversion blinds you in making an objective look at the state.
Heavily discounted - yes (as not all consumer-devices are heavily discounted around the holidays). But the discounts are made by retailers, so they don't affect Nintendo. Only official price-cuts have effect, and I don't think Nintendo has any incentive to sell old-gen-devices (DS and Wii) at a loss and 3DS is profitable since fall.
And WiiU has been a debacle? Not in the timeframe we look at. It sold around 80% Wii-launch in Nov-Dec. Hardly a debacle. After christmas it started dropping. Last week of december was only decent and starting January it dropped below what PS3 and X360 sold in the comparable timeframe (look here: http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=152379&page=1# ). But we talk about the quarter Oct-Dec, so this bad numbers are not included in that (they will in next quarter). That said - the good initial sales of the WiiU could be a problem for the profit, because it was sold at a loss.
