Not a surprise. Nintendo's stock is based soley on the videogame industry and stocks were still at huuuuuge highs from the success of the Wii.

Only time to buy a pure videogame company like Nintendo are during thier historic lows.. and sell them whenever they're high.   Not companies to invest long term.

Poor predictions are mostly at issue here. Nintendo way overestimated their results in practically every field, and when they failed to meet even the projections that were already downward-adjusted, investor confidence slid still further

What's bugging me is where these losses are possibly coming from. To date the 3DS is sold for a profit (and will continue to be sold for profit until August 11th, people, get your facts straight), as are all their other platforms, and they had no software underperformers to account for actual losses of this magnitude

It has to be R&D costs, slated against the fact that the Yen is still gaining ground on the dollar (given lack of confidence in America and the fact that Japan is doing amazingly well economically for a country that's partially irradiated and still recovering structurally)

Whatever  earnings they are receiving from there products on the market are probably being injected into WiiU's development. They have no new games(exception OOt3D which now just reached 1mil) out and the are on heavy R&D for the WiiU . Especially if  its true they are aggressively  pursuing third parties that R&D cost may be the highest ever(probably giving enormous absorbing incentives to develop for/around  launch) .  That plus that pesky yen.

They are investing heavily on WiiU. Obviously they would be losing money now duh.

what nintendo needs is a new business model  ...    

dito

The stock market is driven primarily by sentiment rather than rational thought or facts, and right now many investors have taken a very negative outlook for Nintendo. While I’m not certain that we are near the bottom for Nintendo yet, I think we’re at a point where Nintendo will be worth significantly more in the not too distant future than they are today ...

Essentially, Nintendo is the largest game developer and publisher in the world (by sales), the largest dedicated gaming manufacturer in the world, and is a company that produces substantially larger profits off of platforms with similar sales to their competition. While they’re currently struggling with the transition between a generation with unexpected and unprecedented success (for Nintendo), being that no console manufacturer has seen a decline in hardware sales of 50% or greater in a generation, their platforms will probably end up being very successful and produce immense profits for Nintendo by the middle of the generation.

In contrast to this, Nintendo's share price has fallen to a level (when you factor in inflation and exchange rate changes) that is approaching the level that was the "darkest period" in Nintendo's history in videogames; where their poor sales performance of the Gamecube, and Sony entering into the handheld market had many/most people anticipating Nintendo leaving the console market.

Now, I'm not suggesting you "buy Nintendo now" but we could be hitting a level in the not too distant future where people will be kicking themselves for not buying it 12 to 24 months from now.

Wow, not suprised however I disagree with Nintendo's choice to cut the 3DS price that drastically. Stocks are going to drop further and further up untill now Nintendo has never sold hardware at a loss. (PS does anybody know for sure that 169.99$ is a loss?) Investors are not going to be happy seeing less hardware profits. Nintendo will need to sell a butt load more software and hardware to make up for that 80$ loss on every unit (Compared to 3DS's current price).

As for the stocks going low, it was inevitable and I predicted 3DS wouldn't perform up with DS's standards. I also doubt WiiU will either meaning stocks will take yet another hit.

Nintendo grew too strong too fast and got cocky. They used to be king in the 90's they were crowned king again and they thought that 3DS and WiiU would fly off shelves. 3DS is proving a very hard sell and Nintendo should have predicted lower sales, it didn't help that Nintendo did pretty much zero advertising expecting the unit to sell itself.

In the end I see very hard times ahead for Nintendo, WiiU will not sell nearly as well as Wii did and I don't think 3DS will fly off shelves even after the price cut. Investors will continue to sell shares and stocks will continue to plummit. Infact I'd predict Nintendo will be in a worse situation next year then the whole GameCube era unless they have something radical and drastic up their sleeves for WiiU.

In the end this was unavoidable. If Nintendo never announced 3DS and PSVita hit the market un challenged Nintendo's stock would have plummited. If Nintendo released 3DS alongside PS Vita stock would have dropped. If Nintendo released 3DS at a loss stock would have dropped. Either way with 3DS stock was bound to take a hit.

Then WiiU, if Nintendo waited for the competition to announce hardware, stock would have dropped. Wii sales have been dipping this last while, lack of new hardware announcement would have made stock continue to drop. When Microsoft and Sony announce more powerful hardware stock will drop. When WiiU launches it can't possibly eclipse Wii so stock will drop.

Its a double whammy, nothing Nintendo could do, they had to try and surpass two of the greatest game machines ever built Wii and DS. They were expected to produce superior hardware, they couldn't possibly live up to their reputation. Nintendo will not die and I doubt anyone will aquire them even if their stock continues to plummit. They have so much wealth built up and so many franchises and assets that the company is not in any real danger.

I think 3DS will pick up sales once the price cut is put in place due to new software etc...etc.. then WiiU will launch at a cheaper price and hopefully not have as tough a start as 3DS did. Then in a few years Nintendo will climb the ranks of the stock market yet again. I just think they have a tough few years ahead of them. Especially if WiiU can't compete with Nex-Box or PS4!