Is Nintendo dying?

Short answer:
Yes, as long as they keep their handheld strong, everything should be super.

Long answer:
I think Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all have done rather well in terms of profits, although I could be entirely wrong, since I have no interest in profits /who sold the most games this Christmas :rolleyes:

As for how will Nintendo's next-gen console fare againt the others, I have a little rant about diversity in consoles which I need to disperse first, but skip the following paragraph and you'll jump to the conclusion ;):

There really isn't that much of a difference between the consoles these days anyway - graphics have reached their peak for consoles - resulting in little to no diversity between the consoles. Adding to this point - little diversity with the game selection aswell - no developers have sold themselves out to a single company (...well, except for the ones who sold themselves to EA :p), resulting in the same games across all consoles. Great for people who can't/ don't want to own all consoles but want to be able to play virtually any game. Sucks for people (including me) who like diversity in consoles (adds to reminiscence value ;)).

Due to the minor diversity, decisions on buying consoles are less based on the games as they once were. More than before, decisions will be made from a selections of other things to compensate for the lack of diversity, such as backwards compatiblity, and other shit you don't need, like hard drives, wire-less features, net-play, etc. One thing Nintendo has, that the others don't, is First party games. There is big bucks in Nintendo's pocket already, since a large selection of games are inaccessible on non-Nintendo consoles. If Nintendo can continue to produce high quality games (so their First party games mean something to the consumer), aswell as get their claws on some RPG developers (since I feel that a lot of the market is made up of RPG whores), then their next console should be more successful.

But don't expect new consoles to hit the shelves for another year or two.
 
[waves wand of thread necromancy]
I'd say now that Nintendo has Nintendogs out and the DS is outselling all other systems in Japan, they should be fine for at least another 5 years.
Just like the revenue that the pokemon franchise gave them, I think they'll look to Nintendogs as a cash cow that can be milked dry, and then turned into a cyborg-cow to produce even more milk than regular cows should, and continue to milk it until they need to upgrade it's bionics core even more to create more sweet sweet inhumane corporate life-essence milk.
 
Tendofan00 said:
Yes, as long as they keep their handheld strong, everything should be super.

Consider this. This is a thought that has plagued my mind for about 3 months.

3 months ago, a friend of mine asked me 'so when is microsoft going to come out with their own version of a game boy' and I was like 'they have no plans of doing so'

However, this got me thinking. When Microsoft makes an initiative to make a handheld they've got two distinct advantages.

1. Money
2. Windows CE / Pocket PC

Microsoft has already proven its willing to take a huge loss to brute force their way into a market. Every sale of an XBox was a loss to them.

Now, consider this. As far as I know, the cheapest pocketPC right now is a Dell Axim X30 or something. These things retail for like 280 bux.

Next, I'd like you to consider Sony's initiative, and what is causing them to piss off alot of consumers as well. The PSP is being marketed as not only a handheld console but also a multimedia device. The major conflict of interest right now is between Sony and the Homebrew community.

Now, let's say Microsoft were to make a Tapwave Zodiac like device that used a full Windows PocketPC OS.

They'd market it at 300$ , maybe less. Just like the PSP. However, not only would it be able to play really nice games, and also have nice graphics etc. It would also allow for people to run all their favorite PocketPC programs, and it would also allow homebrew.

Yes, microsoft will take a loss. But on the positive side, everyone can now get a 'cheap PocketPC'.

Your standard pocketpc costs 300-500$ , and those dont come with major 3D acceleration. When Microsoft does enter hte handheld market, be prepared for an extraordinary device. They have the resources to do it.

Disclaimer: I own two macintoshes, a PS2, a Gamecube, N64 etc. I do not own an XBox nor do I ever plan to. I hate microsoft as is. However, I'm going to call a spade a spade here, they've got alot to work with.
 
ratfish said:
[waves wand of thread necromancy]
I'd say now that Nintendo has Nintendogs out and the DS is outselling all other systems in Japan, they should be fine for at least another 5 years.
Just like the revenue that the pokemon franchise gave them, I think they'll look to Nintendogs as a cash cow that can be milked dry, and then turned into a cyborg-cow to produce even more milk than regular cows should, and continue to milk it until they need to upgrade it's bionics core even more to create more sweet sweet inhumane corporate life-essence milk.

Fuck me drunk :shock:
 
Jasoncart said:
"I love Nintendo and make no apology for it. I admit still that they annoy me like no other company in the gaming world. They can be at times simply utterly frustrating, I know that too well, but how shall I put it? Love is true but comes at a price. It's the one that is closest to you that can hurt you most."

So true.
 
The truth is no one makes games like nintendo and as long as people buys their games there's nothing to worry about. Besides its not like nintendo is in trouble quite the contrary.
 
Unfortunatly, I think MS is working on a portable system. I wouldn't be surprised if next E3, or maybe after that, we here something. MS has talked about wanting an "iPod killer". And you most think they would love something to also combat the PSP.
 
schi0249 said:
Unfortunatly, I think MS is working on a portable system. I wouldn't be surprised if next E3, or maybe after that, we here something. MS has talked about wanting an "iPod killer". And you most think they would love something to also combat the PSP.

Nah... they arent making one...

What youre thinking of is the Gizmondo, which features Windows, but is not really supported like a handheld in terms of business...

Its like MicroSoft's unofficial handheld...
 
Zheræ said:
Besides its not like nintendo is in trouble quite the contrary.

Financially, no, but support. hellz yes. They need to get more companies involved with their system, or they'll remain in 2nd place.
 
I'm familiar with the Gizmondo. I'm talking about in the future. When the 360 was first being discussed, there were rumors floating that they were gonna use a detachable hard drive with MP3 playback capabilities. Somewhere, I don't remember, I read rumors that MS wanted something to combat the iPod with.
 
I think with the news of the Revolution's controller, they've proven that they aren't going anywhere. I haven't been this excited about gaming in a long time.
 
Well...MS lost $40 billion on the Xbox...so if the 360 doesn't sell well then they're dropping outta the gaming business. I think...they actually said that somewhere.

Sony has been losing support since the Xbox and GC spurted out...so it's not gonna be a problem. If the 360 dies...and MS drop out...Ninty are gonna have some goooood times :)
 
$4 billion is equal to "only" 10% of their on hand cash. Man, I would kill for even .001% of MS on hand cash ($400,000).
 
My mistake.

Even so, I heard that if it doesn't do well even Microsoft don't wanna keep losing money. On the planned price they already are expected to lose $100 or so on each sale.
 
Yea, but I don't think Microsoft is ever getting out. They're not the type of company that brutes their way in to only exit in shame. They're in it for the long run.
 
We shall see.

Waiiit...it wasn't that they were gonna drop out completely. They were just going to furhter aim for the "media centre" rather than a gaming based product.

All this is just what I'm hearing so...
 
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