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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Nintendo Q2 Earnings October 30th - Results Inside

The massive decline from gen to gen until the Wii shows Nintendo's console business in dire straits up until the Wii. Wii may have been 'made fun of on forums' and the like but its real world performance speaks for itself. Gamecube's performance speaks for itself as well.

Sales spikes is not as important as sustained sales. With 22m WW sold its obvious WW along with DD and Sunshine did not do their job. Xbox outsold GC.

You can play semantics all you want. But if Gamecube wasn't such a collasal failure, Iwata would not have stated it as one and Nintendo would not have changed their entire business strategy the following gen.

But I guess in your world 22m WW is just dandy. As is 300k in a quarter for Wii U? Gimme a break.



Bet between Slimbeast and Arius Dion about Wii sales 2009:


If the Wii sells less than 20 million in 2009 (as defined by VGC sales between week ending 3d Jan 2009 to week ending 4th Jan 2010) Slimebeast wins and get to control Arius Dion's sig for 1 month.

If the Wii sells more than 20 million in 2009 (as defined above) Arius Dion wins and gets to control Slimebeast's sig for 1 month.

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well, they made a profit, small, but still a profit. Impressive digital growth. 2014 lineup is badass, my wallet wants to cry but my nintendo interior fan is raving with joy!!!



Menx64

3DS code: 1289-8222-7215

NNid: Menx064

Next quarter they'll be swimming in money and the 3DS sales will be crazy thanks to Pokemon X/Y



Shadow1980 said:
Arius Dion said:
The massive decline from gen to gen until the Wii shows Nintendo's console business in dire straits up until the Wii. Wii may have been 'made fun of on forums' and the like but its real world performance speaks for itself. Gamecube's performance speaks for itself as well.

Sales spikes is not as important as sustained sales. With 22m WW sold its obvious WW along with DD and Sunshine did not do their job.

You can play semantics all you want. But if Gamecube wasn't such a collasal failure, Iwata would not have stated it as one and Nintendo would not have changed their entire business strategy the following gen.

But I guess in your world 22m WW is just dandy. As is 300k in a quarter for Wii U? Gimme a break.


Mind checking the attitude at the door?

I never said the GC was a huge success. It was Nintendo's lowest-selling home console. What I did say was that calling it an abject failure is an exaggeration. It was profitable for one, so while Nintendo wasn't making as much money off of it as their older systems, they weren't losing money either. It also sold almost as much software as the N64, so in that department Nintendo was holding steady. The GC might not have performed well — and that's mainly attributable to the PS2 being an all-consuming black hole; the GC could never hope to compete with it, especially when it's having to fight with Xbox over the last remaining scraps  — but it certainly was no Jaguar or 3DO.

Also, does the Xbox selling 2 million more units than the GC really matter when it was never profitable for MS while the GC was profitable from day one? The only reason MS weathered the loss was because, well, they're Microsoft, and gaming was not a huge chunk of business.

Not to make too fine of a point of it, but Nintendo did actually sell the GameCube at a loss a couple of times during that generation if memory serves. At launch they were losing about $20/unit and when they dropped to $99 I believe they were losing money on the hardware at first too. Overall they did make a profit, but obviously they weren't happy with its performance overall. 



Shadow1980 said:
Arius Dion said:
The massive decline from gen to gen until the Wii shows Nintendo's console business in dire straits up until the Wii. Wii may have been 'made fun of on forums' and the like but its real world performance speaks for itself. Gamecube's performance speaks for itself as well.

Sales spikes is not as important as sustained sales. With 22m WW sold its obvious WW along with DD and Sunshine did not do their job.

You can play semantics all you want. But if Gamecube wasn't such a collasal failure, Iwata would not have stated it as one and Nintendo would not have changed their entire business strategy the following gen.

But I guess in your world 22m WW is just dandy. As is 300k in a quarter for Wii U? Gimme a break.


Mind checking the attitude at the door?

I never said the GC was a huge success. It was Nintendo's lowest-selling home console. What I did say was that calling it an abject failure is an exaggeration. It was profitable for one, so while Nintendo wasn't making as much money off of it as their older systems, they weren't losing money either. It also sold almost as much software as the N64, so in that department Nintendo was holding steady. The GC might not have performed well — and that's mainly attributable to the PS2 being an all-consuming black hole; the GC could never hope to compete with it, especially when it's having to fight with Xbox over the last remaining scraps  — but it certainly was no Jaguar or 3DO.

Also, does the Xbox selling 2 million more units than the GC really matter when it was never profitable for MS while the GC was profitable from day one? The only reason MS weathered the loss was because, well, they're Microsoft, and gaming was not a huge chunk of business.

Part of communication is more than words. I didn't mean to come across with attitude. More playful. I'll be more mindful in the future.

Do we know for sure if GC or GBA was to thank for their profits at that point? Profit is good, more profit is better.

Xbox has been a faucet of red. All I'm pointing out is that a new kid on the block outsold an og. Nintendo was experience decline after decline for a decade (or more) GC was a failure, not as bad as VB, but a failure nonethelss. you disagree?



Bet between Slimbeast and Arius Dion about Wii sales 2009:


If the Wii sells less than 20 million in 2009 (as defined by VGC sales between week ending 3d Jan 2009 to week ending 4th Jan 2010) Slimebeast wins and get to control Arius Dion's sig for 1 month.

If the Wii sells more than 20 million in 2009 (as defined above) Arius Dion wins and gets to control Slimebeast's sig for 1 month.

Around the Network
Shadow1980 said:
I still wouldn't call it an outright failure. "Disappointing," maybe, but considering it did about as well as one would expect given the conditions of the sixth generation (when the systems came out, how much they cost, what games they had, and marketing are all factors), the fact that it still made money for Nintendo, and that generation-over-generation software sales barely declined, I'd say it was a mixed bag overall. Had there been no Xbox (and if MS had not bought Bungie, we probably would have seen seven-digit sales figures for the system), it's conceivable that it could have sold over 40 million, but things were what they were.


Honestly I kinda wonder if Nintendo maybe should've just accepted Microsoft's deal and used a Windows kernal or whatever in the GameCube, rather than saying no and kinda forcing them to have to make their own console. 

MS collaborated with Sega on the Dreamcast and it didn't seem to hinder the console in any way or force the user to boot into Windows or something crazy.

And honestly MS could've helped Nintendo with online infastructure and what not. 

With no other viable alternative, I agree the GameCube probably would've sold upwards of 40 million. 



Shadow1980 said:
I still wouldn't call it an outright failure. "Disappointing," maybe, but considering it did about as well as one would expect given the conditions of the sixth generation (when the systems came out, how much they cost, what games they had, and marketing are all factors), the fact that it still made money for Nintendo, and that generation-over-generation software sales barely declined, I'd say it was a mixed bag overall. Had there been no Xbox (and if MS had not bought Bungie, we probably would have seen seven-digit sales figures for the system), it's conceivable that it could have sold over 40 million, but things were what they were.


Iwata publically said that GC was a failure.  He went so far as to say that if Wii was another GC, they would have been done as a console maker.



Soundwave said:
TheLastStarFighter said:
Soundwave said:
TheLastStarFighter said:
Nintendo needs a product that can do everything - to some extent - if they want to expand their business.  The primary reason Wii did not have as long a life span as PS360 is the lack of technical grunt (HD) and 3rd party support.  They made a system that is significantly closer to their competitors than Wii was, while still offering a new and different experience.  Wii had the TV remote-like Wii Remote.  Wii U has the Smartphone-like Gamepad, both were designed to appeal to those not used to a dual analogue controller.  And I think both are a good idea and similar even if many can't see it.  They just haven't done a good idea of marketing it, or of making a game or two that captures the imagination of new and old gamers the way that Wii Sports and Zelda TP did.


This is kind of like saying just because a musician had a hit no.1 song, every song they make should be no.1 as long as its marketed properly and has a catchy tune. 

All things are not created equal, the Wiimote really was a lighting rod that came out at the exact right time and went perfectly for Nintendo for the first few years. 

Replicating that with a new idea was always going to be nigh on impossible. 

Nintendo Land, Game & Wario, Wii Party U, Zombi U, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Rayman Origins, Wonderful 101, Batman: Arkham City, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Just Dance 4, *do* demo the functionality of the Wii U controller, the general public is just not responding. 

In the smartphone world, what the Wii U does simply isn't all that interesting relative to the hundreds of other choices people have nowadays trying to get their attention. 

It's not like saying that at all. I'm saying the approach was the same.  The concept behind Wii wasn't motion controls, it was an interface that non-gamers would find familiar.  The Wii Remote was designed like a TV remote.  The Gamepad, similarily, was designed like a tablet.  Some people say Nintendo got away from what worked, I'm saying they didn't.  I don't know if they will have great success, but I don't think the idea was necesarily a bad one, and so far I think the execution (marketing, key games) has been sub-par compared to Wii.

I'm sorry but the Wiimote and Wii U tablet are very, very (verrrrrry) different devices. I think you're reaching by trying to equate them as being similar. 

The Wii had tremendous buzz for it even before TV commercials and the main marketing kicked in. I remember having female friends who never would buy a game console in a million years coming up to me and asking me about it before a single TV ad had aired. On launch day, even before there were a ton of TV spots for it, there were line ups around the store for them. 

The Wii didn't succeed because of marketing, it succeeded because the idea was so incredibly mind blowing to a lot of people at the time and the word of mouth from people using spread like wild fire. Wii U tablet is just another video game controller. It's fun, but no one's dying to tell their friends about it over the water cooler during lunch break at work.

The Wiimote was a very, very rare type of occurance. Nintendo can run TV ads all day and they'll never get the same response, not to mention functionally they are very different devices. The whole point of the Wii Remote was to get you off the couch and up on your feet, moving around. The Wii U tablet brings it back to the sitting on the couch and has like 50 buttons on it. 

In the year 2013, a game controller with a low resolution 6 inch touch panel isn't very interesting at all. It's kind of predictable actually. 

You're doing a terrible job of paraphrasing my posts, and totally missing the meaning in order to state something supporting your viewpoint.  I didn't say they are similar devices.  I said the approach and motivation for the concept are similar.  The devices themselves are very different.



TheLastStarFighter said:
Shadow1980 said:
I still wouldn't call it an outright failure. "Disappointing," maybe, but considering it did about as well as one would expect given the conditions of the sixth generation (when the systems came out, how much they cost, what games they had, and marketing are all factors), the fact that it still made money for Nintendo, and that generation-over-generation software sales barely declined, I'd say it was a mixed bag overall. Had there been no Xbox (and if MS had not bought Bungie, we probably would have seen seven-digit sales figures for the system), it's conceivable that it could have sold over 40 million, but things were what they were.


Iwata publically said that GC was a failure.  He went so far as to say that if Wii was another GC, they would have been done as a console maker.

Is this the article? http://www.1up.com/news/iwata-wii-doesn-outsell-gamecube



"I've Underestimated the Horse Power from Mario Kart 8, I'll Never Doubt the WiiU's Engine Again"

Anfebious said:
TheLastStarFighter said:
Shadow1980 said:
I still wouldn't call it an outright failure. "Disappointing," maybe, but considering it did about as well as one would expect given the conditions of the sixth generation (when the systems came out, how much they cost, what games they had, and marketing are all factors), the fact that it still made money for Nintendo, and that generation-over-generation software sales barely declined, I'd say it was a mixed bag overall. Had there been no Xbox (and if MS had not bought Bungie, we probably would have seen seven-digit sales figures for the system), it's conceivable that it could have sold over 40 million, but things were what they were.


Iwata publically said that GC was a failure.  He went so far as to say that if Wii was another GC, they would have been done as a console maker.

Is this the article? http://www.1up.com/news/iwata-wii-doesn-outsell-gamecube

That would be the one!  I can remember that vividly from back then, and it's interesting that they delivered.