Oh its this article again...

end of the Wii life cycle blah blah blah
expectation of new console depresses current generation profits blah blah blah
every modern console is sold for a loss at release blah blah blah

SN1987a goes boom: Doesn't every house have 5 versions of Cooking Mama and Wii Fit yet?

At least when I put in Cooking Mama the farking game works right away.

//just spent 40 minutes figuring out what error 80022d11 means

dopeydwarf: Even when the PS3 was launched Sony still supported the PS2 for quite a while.

They still support it now, the PS2 is still being produced and sold.

Thank you Nintendo.

But your profits are in another castle.

Well I would think by now every casual in the world has already bought their Wii.

Talk about market saturation. There's only so long that you can sell what is basically just a gamecube with a gimmick controller. They never even released a next gen console like MS or Sony did.

They had a failed launch and the wii is on its way out, of course they had less revenue. Measuring your success as revenue this year vs revenue last is the biggest waste of time in capitalism today.

The real story should be what profit did they make. Net revenue change is not a failure. "game maker chalked up a US$455.9 million operating loss for the 2011 financial year." is.
source

entitygm: They had a failed launch and the wii is on its way out, of course they had less revenue. Measuring your success as revenue this year vs revenue last is the biggest waste of time in capitalism today.

The real story should be what profit did they make. Net revenue change is not a failure. "game maker chalked up a US$455.9 million operating loss for the 2011 financial year." is.
source

Somewhere along the way we switched from profit to profit growth as the goal. Then everything got terrible.

bhcompy: dopeydwarf: Well it would help if they still actually produced any new first party games for the Wii. Hell, even third party would be good at this point. They have a massive install base, I don't understand why they're so quick to drop it just because the Wii-U is on the way. Even when the PS3 was launched Sony still supported the PS2 for quite a while.

Of note, first party title God of War 2 came out for PS2 months after PS3 was released, and GoW2 is among the pantheon of best PS2 games ever and among the great all time console games.

Wasn't Shadow of the Colossus a late release as well? Amazing game.

There's been a decided lack of quality games in the last 12 months for the wii. 1 quality game every 4 or 5 months isn't going to keep revenue up. Devs have moved on.

But yeah, it's had a good run and me not being a fps fan, I've got the most fun out of wii titles it was been my fav console of the current three.

/Donkey Kong Country Returns worth the price alone.

It's weird that the games I was most excited about on the WII were either PS2 or PSP ports from third party developers (Atlus, NIS America, etc.).......and I had about half of those games on PS2 or PSP because I hate hate hate hate the Wiimote. Hate.

Hell, most third party games are shipping with a classic controller. Monster Hunter Tri. Xenoblade. It's pretty crappy when developers just throw up their hands and go "I dunno, here's a good controller".

Ironically, I am really, really hoping for more PS2 ports on the 3DS. A portable version of Metal Gear Solid 3 and Tales of the Abyss was a dream come true for the child within.

ModernLuddite: It's weird that the games I was most excited about on the WII were either PS2 or PSP ports from third party developers (Atlus, NIS America, etc.).......and I had about half of those games on PS2 or PSP because I hate hate hate hate the Wiimote. Hate.

Hell, most third party games are shipping with a classic controller. Monster Hunter Tri. Xenoblade. It's pretty crappy when developers just throw up their hands and go "I dunno, here's a good controller".

Ironically, I am really, really hoping for more PS2 ports on the 3DS. A portable version of Metal Gear Solid 3 and Tales of the Abyss was a dream come true for the child within.

The ironic thing is, the same people who praise the ports of those game bash the vita for ports of other games. Honestly, the only thing I care abot is if the game was fun to plat, could care less if it's multiplatform.

Reggie, head of Nintendo of America, has stated in interviews that he is a fan of the book "Blue Ocean Strategy." Of course, he isn't head of Nintendo as a whole, but it is interesting to see the advice given in that book. Essentially, the strategy is to not compete directly against others. Instead, a company should do something that none of the competition does, thus completely eliminating any need to compete on the same terms. In Nintendo's case that would mean that instead of keeping up with graphics, processing power, and online communities that 360 and PS3 have the Wii would instead focus on motion controls and casual gaming. In 2006 that helped them carve a niche in the marketplace. With cheap phone/tablet games flooding the market in 2012, however, it makes little sense to own a home console for casual titles. And as far as motion controls go, Microsoft and Sony have entered into that niche as well. Even phones and tablets can sense limited motions.

It is a shame that Nintendo has painted itself into a corner. I grew up playing NES titles and lately I've been absolutely hooked on Xenoblade Chronicles (a MASSIVE epic RPG that just came out for the Wii earlier this month). However, I don't really see any point in buying a Wii-U if it's not even up to current industry standards. Perhaps they should stop with the gimmicks and actually try competing head-to-head with the rest of the market?

I predict Wii U will be the worst-selling console of all-time.

I am a gamer in a group of non-gamers in my office. I owned a Wii around the time of launch and sold it off in 2010. It had not been turned on in almost a year by that time, because there were no games I was vaguely interested in playing for the Wii that I hadn't already conquered multiple times before.

All of my work friends began purchasing Wiis around this time. I warned them that once the novelty factor wore off in a month or so, they would have a 250 dollar paperweight. No one listened and they bought their Wii Sports machines. Now they sit in their entertainment centers, wasting away slowly.

Non-gamers, listen to your gamer friends. There's a reason they're pale and have a few interests different than you.

Nintendo's problem is that casual gamers now spend $1-5 on cell phone and iPad games as opposed to $30-50 on Wii and 3DS games. Hardcore gamers will continue to spend the big bucks for the big titles, but Nintendo has intentionally avoided them.

Geotpf: Nintendo's problem is that casual gamers now spend $1-5 on cell phone and iPad games as opposed to $30-50 on Wii and 3DS games. Hardcore gamers will continue to spend the big bucks for the big titles, but Nintendo has intentionally avoided them.

Oh look, it's somebody who knows what Nintendo's problem is and isn't afraid to tell you.

AngryPanda: I am a gamer in a group of non-gamers in my office. I owned a Wii around the time of launch and sold it off in 2010. It had not been turned on in almost a year by that time, because there were no games I was vaguely interested in playing for the Wii that I hadn't already conquered multiple times before.

All of my work friends began purchasing Wiis around this time. I warned them that once the novelty factor wore off in a month or so, they would have a 250 dollar paperweight. No one listened and they bought their Wii Sports machines. Now they sit in their entertainment centers, wasting away slowly.

Non-gamers, listen to your gamer friends. There's a reason they're pale and have a few interests different than you.

It is ironic that one of the few games that made actual use of the WiiMote in a positive way--Skyward Sword--is probably going to be the LAST title Nintendo brings out for the Wii.

poot_rootbeer: Geotpf: Nintendo's problem is that casual gamers now spend $1-5 on cell phone and iPad games as opposed to $30-50 on Wii and 3DS games. Hardcore gamers will continue to spend the big bucks for the big titles, but Nintendo has intentionally avoided them.

Oh look, it's somebody who knows what Nintendo's problem is and isn't afraid to tell you.


you mad cause hes stylin on you?

This was sadly a long time coming. I'm honestly going to miss Nintendo when they're gone, but they've done it to themselves. I might even shead a tear.

(This is going to be long, so bear with me.)

Let's go back to the SNES. At the time, it was the most technologically advanced and sound platform with oodles of classic games. Chrono Trigger, farking Earthbounddude. They were really riding high for a long time. Nintendo of course had their competition with Sega's Genesis, which also offered some solid titles. At least until they went to the Dark Side and tried to extend the life of the Genesis with the Sega CD and 32X. Sega tried releasing.... ugh FMV games on their awful platforms, while Nintendo kept going on strong. At least until they farked up completely by not going to a CD format, which is what Sony did for the first Playstation. The Playstation sold like gangbusters and had the games to back it up. The N64 used a dated cartridge system and still had some killer games on the platform (Goldeneye, Conker's Bad Fur Day and of course Smash Brothers). Still, they lost the hardware fight while more and more developers jumped ship and defected to Sony's camp. Losing Square on Final Fantasy was bad enough, but it was only the beginning.

(Pay attention because this part is important)

Then the Xbox came out. Most important about it was the fact you could FINALLY play games online like the PC Gaming Master Race (the dweebs who spent exorbitant amounts of cash on gaming rigs) had been doing for years. The unwashed console masses could play online with their friends, which farking changed everything. Halo didn't sell zillions of copies for the single player campaign. The market and the consumer now expects good online play out of the goddamn box.

Then Nintendo makes the worst financial decision of their life. They create a entire gaming console based on a motion control gimmick and see bored housewives and eight-year olds as their ticket to riches. The Wii actually worked for a while financially. However, the problems of the system were glaring. The processing power was weak, the motion controls alienated 3rd party developers even more and the shiatty excuse for on-line connectivity completely froze them out from online sales of downloadable content. You couldn't play the big blockbuster releases on the Wii. You couldn't play with your friends on a reliable network. The housewives would bought the farking thing just for Wii Sports didn't buy anything else!

Nintendo is now basically the sole producer of quality games on their own system which is the kiss of death for a hardware maker. Rare completely became more and more of a punchline instead of Nintendo's vanguard. Nintendo's own 1st party releases even got delayed numerous times! All the Wii's they sold started collecting dust in households,or sold for beer/weed money at greatly reduced value. When I can count the amount of good third party titles on LITERALLY one hand, you've got a SERIOUS problem. (Trauma Team, No More Heroes 1/2, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. I didn't include that overrated turd Resident Evil 4 for a reason. shiatty controls and inventory management is not a good game)

People abandoned them in droves and they started to hemorrhage money until they can make a new console which looks even more bugfark retarded than the last one. When the developers and the users have abandoned you in droves. But hey, another Mario Kart or Mario Party might keep the lights turned on in your office building for a while.

To quote Gordon Gekko, "You either do it right....or you get eliminated". Sorry Nintendo, but it's really been fun.

The rant before didn't even include that Apple and Android are DEMOLISHING Nintendo's claim on the portable market.

PiffMan420: . At least until they farked up completely by not going to a CD format, which is what Sony did for the first Playstation.

Well, they thought about it enough to pay Sony to develop it for them, then they said "Nah" and Sony said "Fine, we'll utilize the R&D and release our own system". Nintendo shot themselves in the foot rather hard, but it also helped them in a small way since it helped kill Sega.