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Forums - Sales - Nintendo has not made money in the 8th gen and Iwata's answers to questions 8 and 9

Based on operating income, to weed out the noise of one time gains and currency fluctuations also the metric best determines the day to day health of the business. (For Currency, Nintendo revised its gain from the dollar by 10%...90 to 100 yen and Euro by 14.3%...120 to 140 yen)

FY 2012 (April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012)

Operating income loss of 37.320 Billion Yen (translated to todays dollars $359 million, back in April 2012, it was quoted at $459 million)

FY 2013 (April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013)

Operating income loss of 36.410 Billion Yen (translated to today's dollars $350 million, back 10 moths ago it was quoted at $366 million)

FY 2014 (April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014)

Operating income loss of 35,000* Billion Yen ($337 million dollars...this one is the doozy, Nintendo orginally projected 100 Billion Yen operating income for this year, so that is a 135 billion yen swing and its only an estimate* as sales for the Wii U, 3DS and corresponding software can still come in softer for the rest of the quarter we are currently in)

Total losses for the 8th Gen:

$1.162 billion in their respective year, $1.046 billion in todays dollars.

 

From last years Fiscal Year meeting in April, Iwata was still adamant that external factors were in no way a determinant to his business, 10 months later, he is talking new strategy.

8

You are aiming for the operating profit of 100 billion yen in the next fiscal year. Do you have a strategy in place if this fails? Will you take responsibility if you cannot accomplish it?

8

Iwata:

First of all, this may not be a direct answer to your question, but it is my job to focus on how to accomplish this aim, rather than to think about what we should do if our aim cannot be accomplished. I believe my job is to establish as promising a situation as possible to accomplish this aim. From this perspective, for Nintendo 3DS, it is vital to create similar momentum as we see in Japan in the overseas markets. So, the point is to launch several key titles seamlessly abroad to change the sales momentum of Nintendo 3DS itself, and then to create a cycle where hardware sales soar and its software sells well. As for Wii U, there will not be any key titles at the beginning of the year, so even though it will take some time, starting from this summer when the software lineup is enriched, we will promote our platform and aim to change the sales momentum dramatically.

As for your second question, I used the word "commitment," so I believe you can understand what I meant by that.

 

9

You have committed to the operating profit of 100 billion yen; however, the hardware market has shrunk drastically this fiscal year. What are the assumed conditions of the market to achieve 100 billion yen? I would like to know if the assumed market size is similar to the current fiscal year, larger to some degree or shrink continuously.

9

Iwata:

It is obvious that if we are able to sell only about the same number of units of Nintendo 3DS next fiscal year as this fiscal year, the sales growth of software will be limited. In such a case, we will probably not be able to reach the level of operating profit we are aiming for. Therefore, the current sales levels of Nintendo 3DS in the overseas markets are not at all satisfactory in regard to the hardware’s potential. This is not happening due to external factors. In our understanding, this is because we could not fully convey the appeal of the Nintendo 3DS platform and as a result, fewer consumers purchased it than we had expected. So, obviously, our aim is to increase our hardware sales more than in this fiscal year.



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Too long to read. Is it still Doomed?



Edit: Considering this is from last year... it's actually quite embarrassing. They overestimated demand then... and they did the same exact thing last year. I'm not sure where they pushed the Wii U... except for price cuts and bundles. Marketing was largely non-existent. 



Current gaming platforms - Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, New 3DS, PC

random15 said:
Too long to read. Is it still Doomed?


If you are referring to the WiiU this is all that the article really says about it's future:

Iwata: "As for Wii U, there will not be any key titles at the beginning of the year, so even though it will take some time, starting from this summer when the software lineup is enriched, we will promote our platform and aim to change the sales momentum dramatically".

I am a bit lost with that statement. I thought the big hitters were coming in the spring.

Well into it's second year and he is still bemoaning software. Yawn.



These comments and figures are from the end of 2012.



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justinian said:
random15 said:
Too long to read. Is it still Doomed?


If you are referring to the WiiU this is all that the article really says about it's future:

Iwata: "As for Wii U, there will not be any key titles at the beginning of the year, so even though it will take some time, starting from this summer when the software lineup is enriched, we will promote our platform and aim to change the sales momentum dramatically".

I am a bit lost with that statement. I thought the big hitters were coming in the spring.

Well into it's second year and he is still bemoaning software. Yawn.


this was a quote from last year. 



justinian said:
random15 said:
Too long to read. Is it still Doomed?


If you are referring to the WiiU this is all that the article really says about it's future:

Iwata: "As for Wii U, there will not be any key titles at the beginning of the year, so even though it will take some time, starting from this summer when the software lineup is enriched, we will promote our platform and aim to change the sales momentum dramatically".

I am a bit lost with that statement. I thought the big hitters were coming in the spring.

Well into it's second year and he is still bemoaning software. Yawn.

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Mario Kart 8 are in "Spring." By Summer, they will improve marketing starting in Summer (E3 as well?) and promote Super Smash Bros U, X, Bayonetta 2, Hyrule Warriors, and the rest of their planned 2014 games at a dramatic increase.



SORRY. I thought the comments were from this month, not 2012.

Thanks for pointing that out everyone.



Looks like he didn't "take responsibility for it" after all.



RolStoppable said:
If Nintendo truly believes it's not external factors that are the problem, then there is hope. Not so much for this gen, but the future.


why do you say that? just curious about your point of view.