jarrod on 07 May 2010
Didn't see this posted, Iwata sounds ready for WAR...
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/technology/article7118570.ece
May 7, 2010
Rivals are invading its patch, but Nintendo is ready to go to war
Leo Lewis, Asia Business Correspondent
Nintendo is preparing to unleash the full force of its development and marketing artillery against Apple after profits tumbled at the Japanese giant for the first time in six years.
The reversal of fortunes, though flagged in advance by the company, throws the spotlight on threats to what once seemed a bulletproof business.
Satoru Iwata, the Nintendo president, is understood to have told his senior executives recently to regard the battle with Sony as a victory already won and to treat Apple, and its iPhone and iPad devices, as the “enemy of the future” .
That, say analysts, may be premature. Last Christmas, almost twice as many Wii consoles were sold in the US as the PlayStation3. But games developers increasingly see Sony’s machine as having a large enough base of users to justify not making titles for the Nintendo machine.
Sony and Microsoft are also making their own forays into family-oriented gaming and the iPhone has emerged as a formidable competitor for Nintendo in the handheld gaming arena once dominated by the DS console.
Sources close to the Kyoto-based company describe a mood of concern as the hardware and software divisions race to restore the capacity to “surprise” — a traditional feature of Nintendo games that Mr Iwata holds dear.
The company’s recent strategy has centred on creating devices aimed not just at children and dedicated — generally male — gamers, but at the whole family. Two years ago, the company claimed to have permanently altered the demographics of video games by raising the average age and the gender mix of gamers. Unfortunately, the very people it claimed to have converted — high-school girls and men aged between 30 and 40 — reported that they would rather have an iPhone than a DS in their pockets or handbags.
Although the company ended the 2009 financial year squarely in the black, analysts described Nintendo’s profit slide as a “triple punch”.
Despite selling over 10 million copies of the latest Mario title for the Wii console, the pipeline of new games has stopped delivering the sort of blockbusters that drove console sales to record levels in the first two years after its launch. Nintendo has also suffered from the financial crisis. Households around the world spent most of last year in full belt-tightening mode, and remain cautious about buying games with a relatively short playing-life.
But the most striking decline was in sales of the consoles. Although both the Wii and DS have outsold their Sony and Microsoft counterparts, the lower technology of the Nintendo machines is starting to show. With far less processing power than either the PlayStation3 or Xbox 360, the Wii is suffering. Its sales were 21 per cent down in the year to March 31. Net profits at Nintendo, meanwhile, fell to Y228.64 billion (£1.6 billion) from Y279.09 billion
Nintendo is preparing to unleash the full force of its development and marketing artillery against Apple after profits tumbled at the Japanese giant for the first time in six years.
The reversal of fortunes, though flagged in advance by the company, throws the spotlight on threats to what once seemed a bulletproof business.
Satoru Iwata, the Nintendo president, is understood to have told his senior executives recently to regard the battle with Sony as a victory already won and to treat Apple, and its iPhone and iPad devices, as the “enemy of the future” .
That, say analysts, may be premature. Last Christmas, almost twice as many Wii consoles were sold in the US as the PlayStation3. But games developers increasingly see Sony’s machine as having a large enough base of users to justify not making titles for the Nintendo machine.
Sony and Microsoft are also making their own forays into family-oriented gaming and the iPhone has emerged as a formidable competitor for Nintendo in the handheld gaming arena once dominated by the DS console.
Sources close to the Kyoto-based company describe a mood of concern as the hardware and software divisions race to restore the capacity to “surprise” — a traditional feature of Nintendo games that Mr Iwata holds dear.
The company’s recent strategy has centred on creating devices aimed not just at children and dedicated — generally male — gamers, but at the whole family. Two years ago, the company claimed to have permanently altered the demographics of video games by raising the average age and the gender mix of gamers. Unfortunately, the very people it claimed to have converted — high-school girls and men aged between 30 and 40 — reported that they would rather have an iPhone than a DS in their pockets or handbags.
Although the company ended the 2009 financial year squarely in the black, analysts described Nintendo’s profit slide as a “triple punch”.
Despite selling over 10 million copies of the latest Mario title for the Wii console, the pipeline of new games has stopped delivering the sort of blockbusters that drove console sales to record levels in the first two years after its launch. Nintendo has also suffered from the financial crisis. Households around the world spent most of last year in full belt-tightening mode, and remain cautious about buying games with a relatively short playing-life.
But the most striking decline was in sales of the consoles. Although both the Wii and DS have outsold their Sony and Microsoft counterparts, the lower technology of the Nintendo machines is starting to show. With far less processing power than either the PlayStation3 or Xbox 360, the Wii is suffering. Its sales were 21 per cent down in the year to March 31. Net profits at Nintendo, meanwhile, fell to Y228.64 billion (£1.6 billion) from Y279.09 billion
Sequel I want the most :
