...and then they bid adieu (Nintendo to exit from hardware business)

[James]

"In the latest fiscal year ended in March, Nintendo posted a profit of 106 billion yen ($849 million), up 10% from the previous year, on a 20% rise in sales."

WooHoo! That ain't chump change there, and they won't see a greater profit from going back to playing cards.

Nintendo isn't leaving either software or hardware, not when they've seen a 10% rise in profits on even an ok year. This is great stuff, not bad stuff.

Also that 20% rise in sales is because both GBA and Gamecube hit in the same year, at least in the US. Only getting a 10% profit when you've rolled out new hardware (usually sold with next to nothing for a profit margin) isn't bad at all. Add in a nice price drop for the GBA at Thanksgiving and those numbers aren't so bad at all.

Hell, if they don't want $850,000,000 in profit I'll take over the market for them. Wouldn't want them to be unhappy, now.

James

[Stibbons]

I hate this fucking article. Terrible, terrible job of a headline. Gaming sites all over the net are talking about how Nintendo is going third-party. Where does it say Nintendo is going third-party?

All this article is doing is reenforcing what Nintendo has been saying for years and years: "We like to make fun games." It's all about Nintendo ignoring the technology race and taking strides in the innovation race.

[FirstBlood]

exactly... they're not "pulling a sega"... they're just making their games...

[amerlop]

I agree with the parts of the article that say that Nintendo is upset over the empathsis of technology and new consoles. For more serious hobbyists, like most of us, buying a console every couple of years isn't a big thing, but it can be a problem for the general public. The most common sediment I get during a console purchase is the parents saying "I shouldn't even buy this. I'm just gonna have to do it again before I know it." It is a great concern to the majority of consumers. As far as it bringing a second great crash, I'm not entirely convinced. Back in the post-2600 days, gaming was still a niche market. It's too much of a part of entertainment culture at this point for it to ever crash. Just as you will never see a movie or an internet recession, you will never see a gaming recession. But my concern is that even a small cutback in sales will cause the few small, niche-based developers to cease.

Who knows, maybe a independent gaming industry is on the way (though I don't know how the liscensing thing would work). Let's just hope that cooler heads prevail and incubation programs are not just a but of hot air.

[BioMechanic]

I think that before long, NO ONE will be making game hardware. Its limits are being reached very quickly.

We're all old-school and prefer to have the physical presence of a console, but I'm positive that near-future generations are gonna be downloading Shenmue 8 and the like directly to their millimeter-thick holographic projectors.

I predict that in the next ten years, consoles will no longer be produced by anyone.

[burgundy]

I'd rather play my Cube for the next eight years than start waiting for the PS3. Though it might be ten billion times more powerful than the PS2, it will still have nothing but crap available for the first year.

[Stone]

Okay, look. Nintendo's assets are 75% cash 25% productive assets (stuff they've invested in). For years, they've had this sort of asset structure. That's a gigantic neon sign telling everyone that Nintendo has no confidence in their future in the video game market.

They don't think they can grow any more. That's why they've stopped investing. They make profit, which is nice, but they can't grow, which is bad. THIS IS WHY THEY ARE GOING TO BE BOUGHT OUT.

[xS]

They arent going to be brought out. You forget about the [b]extremely[b] high value of their goodwill among other intangible assest that might not be shown in their balance sheet. Moreoever , since its more of a family/friends(youve implied that in another post) than its likely that the stock is held by a small number of ppl who have had this stock for a long period of time. Its likely that they are reluctant to sell of their shares.

[Stone]

xS - well, of course their goodwill value is high (Microsoft's offer of $25 billion for a company with $2 billion of productive assets), but not so high that Microsoft couldn't buy them out, not anywhere close.

It is a family company, yeah, but they're publicly traded, and they do have a responsibility to their public, non-family owners.

[StriderKyo]

Originally posted by Stibbons
I hate this fucking article. Terrible, terrible job of a headline. Gaming sites all over the net are talking about how Nintendo is going third-party. Where does it say Nintendo is going third-party?

Exactly what I was saying. Blame the Nintexecs for a stupid PR move. To paraphrase PT Barnum, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the gaming public.

And the fact that the more powerful Xbox can't run Morrowind without a bit of difficulty is evidence enough that there's plenty to be gained from more powerful hardware, even if only in terms of size and complexity of environment. Of course, games that can actually take advantage of that require dozens of programmers (ie Shenmue with its staff of 200), hence Nintendo's grumbling about diminishing returns. But whatever. If they're going to keep bragging about being larger than the film industry, it's time they started acting like it.