Here's the article:

Why Nintendo Will Never Be Great Again

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz

I grew up as a Nintendo kid. The day Nintendo's (NTDOY) 8-bit console hit the market was the day I handed over my old Atari and ColecoVision systems. The gameplay was rudimentary in retrospect, but I didn't care as I guided Mario and Link through their rendered worlds.

The games and graphics ultimately got better. The stakes grew higher. Nintendo survived the onslaught of disc-based consoles. Even today, the Wii is the only one among the three major consoles to not play DVDs. It didn't matter at first, as Nintendo's whimsical motion-based controller overcame what the platform lacked in specs.

It matters now, though.

Shares of Nintendo hit a five-year low this summer, wiping away any gains made during the Wii era and through the last couple of handheld DS introductions. Net revenue fell by more than half in Nintendo's latest quarter, with a steep operating loss to boot.

Nintendo went on to shave its full-year fiscal profit target by 82% this summer, after announcing a 32% price cut on the 3DS portable gaming device that it had introduced in March. All this came on the heels of a 25% price cut on its Wii console back in May.

How optimistic can anyone be for next year's Wii U rollout when Nintendo can't move its gadgetry even at fire-sale prices?
The funk is real, and it's not getting better.

Wii Will Rock You

We're now a week away from a Nintendo event in Tokyo, where the Japanese gaming giant is expected to showcase upcoming 3DS games and perhaps even new 3DS peripherals. Some bloggers have posited that a radical redesign is in the works, but that's largely wishful thinking. Besides, it's not as if Nintendo is a makeover away from revisiting its glory years.

Consumers have moved on, even if Nintendo has yet to realize why it wasn't given a forwarding address. Nintendo can be clueless.

In an interview with video game website Kotaku last year, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime dismissed the threat of Apple's (AAPL) App Store and the iPad, iPod Touch and iPhone lines it feeds.

"If our games represent a range between snacks of entertainment and full meals depending on the type of game, [Apple's] aren't even a mouthful, in terms of the gaming experience you get," Fils-Aime said.

He also suggested that the platform isn't a viable profit platform for developers because there are so many free games available and the premium downloads are too cheap.

Well, there were fewer than 100 million devices running Apple's iOS platform at the time. There are more than 200 million iOS devices now. Google's (GOOG) Android is also taking off, at least on the smartphone front.

It doesn't matter if developers don't like swapping a handful of games being sold at $30 for a ton of them at $0.99. It's the consumers calling for free -- or nearly free -- casual games that can be played on Facebook or on a smartphone.
Nintendo just isn't where the gamers are.

Paying the Price for Aiming Young

Sony (SNE) and Microsoft (MSFT) have cornered the diehard gamer market, and that hasn't been exactly a picnic, either. However, Nintendo's emphasis on low-tech titles that appeal to younger gamers, retro purists, and multigenerational families playing together is at the very heart of the App and Android games that continue to flood the market.

If you don't think that gamers are warming up to Nintendo-less apps, check out GameStop (GME).

"Did you know that GameStop now buys your old iPod, iPhone and iPad devices," reads GameStop's website. "Trade them in at GameStop for in-store credit."

It's not just about buying back iOS gear, GameStop is likely to begin selling it, too. Apple-watcher 9to5Mac is reporting that GameStop recently told dealers at a trade show that it's about to begin offering iPads, iPods, and iPhones through its stores.

Nintendo is in a quandary. Will it simply settle for thinner and thinner slices of the gaming pie, or will it go the Sega route and begin licensing its proprietary games and characters on rival platforms? The former is a recipe for a slow-death casserole. The latter simply speeds up the process, but with a little more licensing revenue on the way out.

I would love to see Nintendo pull a Yoshi out of its hat next week, but it's just not going to happen. Nintendo's best days are a replay screen of the past.

Source:   http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/09/08/why-nintendo-will-never-be-great-again/

Your thoughts? Is he right or he is Benjamin Yoder's secret lover ?

(I'd like to add a poll but it doesn't work properly...)

How many times has the top selling console manufacturer released their successor console significantly before their competition and not outsold their competition? This is by no means a claim that Nintendo is ensured success but it is a demonstration that there are factors that these analysts never take into account.

With that said, Nintendo's biggest problem at this point in time seems to be that they're not executing a well defined strategy. While it is great when a company determines that they made a mistake, in some cases it is better to continue with the issue until it makes sense to change it; for example, if the rumours are true about the second analogue nub, it may not make sense to add a new one at this point in time (after all, the DS and iPhone are highly successful without a single analogue stick so why does the 3DS need an add-on/revision to add a second one?)

It is AOL site, just ignore it. Given some people do take advice from that site. I guess I am very annoyed at this whole app market is how the market going to end up with. 

It's not over til its over.

More of the same misguided thinking. It's quite clear what Nintendo needs to do to get out of the funk. On the handheld scene it might be harder to pitch something like Brain Age again, but they can (and are) still focusing on unique interaction in the console space where the i-whatever threat is irrelevant. When it comes to handhelds, they have to focus more on branding, and they are, which is also clear that they're making concessions to third parties to secure big titles (but big titles that will actually work) like Monster Hunter. Monster Hunter, Pokemon, Mario, Mario Kart, and they can focus the arcade paradigm just slightly upmarket of where they focused it in the DS days, but stay true to quick, accessible games that, however, cannot be properly replicated on iOS

Wii U is less of a challenge, but only if they continue to focus on expanded market work there

What boggles my mind is that we're still getting "Nintendo might go like Sega" at the end of the generation where they sold around 260 million units of hardware (and counting). While that number will be hard to even approach next time around, clearly something's going better than the company that flailed around for about 5 years before they exited the market...

Also I love how he points to Microsoft and Sony not having a good time either, but Microsoft is doing wonderful and is very healthy. Sony is pretty healthy now, and that makes all three companies alright.

Edit: I misread this part of the article, it was talking about the past. (nevermind this whole post). 

I didn't find fault with that one part, actually. It says they had a hard time getting to where they are, but also implied that they are secure in their positions, both statements being true: Microsoft and Sony (or at least the gaming divisions) bled red ink for years to get where they are, but they are fairly secure in their death-grip on the upmarket vis-a-vis Nintendo.

Actually I think I misread it, as in current event. I guess this is what happens from lack of sleep. 

well they may not be the Ninty of old but i think there getting the gears grinding again.

i can only compare the 3DS(rumor'd redesign and the analog add on) launch to the rushed launch's of PS3(supply) and most notably 360(RROD) imo.

it seems the Ninty that lost 2 gens straight is still learning from that past and looks to repeat it.

i previously gave the 8th gen to everyone but now i'm not so sure Ninty will even factor in, and its not because of this article which has a few points but way off base; its because they show no signs of anything redeeming.

while i'll always be a Ninty fan, it looks like i'll continue to be a disappointed one.

Really? I swear if a company has one bad year its the end of the world. The ps3 and 360 had rough starts and ended up doing great. Nintendo cant have a rough start with the 3ds? I really don't get how people consider apps as high a quality as a console or handheld game. If mario was one dollar on the iphone it could do 20 million or more sold but it doesnt really compare to mario selling 20 million units on the wii or ds for 50 bucks with better controls and more content and a higher gain of profit per unit sold.