I'm just disappointed that I heard non stop doom screams for the last 5 years over minimal losses.

It's almost like the concept of a "generation" is completely arbitrary, and pretty meaningless overall.

the Gamecube did NOT lose money

essentially

I really wish more people on this site would agree.

I understand why people like the concept of defined generations, it makes comparisons easier but they are all over the place.

For example, Gameboy could be defined as a dual-generation device having released in 1989 & getting replaced in 2001. And where does Dreamcast fit in? It released basically right between PS1/N64/Sat & PS2/GC/XB.

Nintendo has simply grown too large for having so few business ventures. MS and Sony have enough sources of revenue that they can easily offset losses like those Nintendo are incurring over say the Wii U. Nintendo has few other products though.
That's why its good to see them branching out into mobile games and talk of movies.

Think of companies like Sony and MS as nice tall buildings but also wide near the base. Makes them harder to knock over during an earthquake (financial problems). Whereas Nintendo is a building just as tall, but unlike the others, got that tall without widening and reinforcing its base.

Especially in Japan, where the business culture is very different (it's way harder to switch careers or find a new job after losing one, and as such companies are expected to take care of their employees), Nintendo needs to branch out. If it turns out the kinds of products it makes don't have a place in today's market, they might have enough in their war chest to stay afloat while they adapt and change gears... which is basically what they're doing at the moment.

I hope it works, or a lot of people might lose jobs, which is probably why they're so reluctant to quit the hardware side of their business (the other areas of their company aren't enough to absorb their hardware staff).

Great post.

Nintendo is expanding, they expanding their business branches, they go for toys, mobile platforms, themed parks, themed restaurant, movies...they will definitely not abandoning their basically core business, console gaming with their platforms, Nintendo wants more to be like Disney or Apple, people who think Nintendo will abande all that and become just another only 3rd party are delusion, 

Only example they would consider abandoning hardware market is to have years and generations of losses, but they will make profit even this gen with Wii U their biggest fail ever.

Much of this is attributed to the yen/dollar rates, but being perfectly frank, it's not an unfair assessment to say that retail performance over the time period in question has a direct correlation to the market performance with the stock exchanges.

I've been an NTDOY holder since the heyday of the 7th gen and the only reason I didn't exit was due to the low stake I held. Simply wasn't worth selling, and hasn't been until the current boom generated by Pokemon Go.

Nintendo have investing a lots in the last years, buy a technology 200 millions dollars in 2014... they depend of NX succès, but on time, noone can say what 's matter in 2017...