Filed under: Business, Rumors and speculation, Wii
According to recent reports, Brighter Minds Media, publisher of the successful World of Goo for Nintendo’s WiiWare, recently filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This is extremely bad news, especially since World of Goo was so well received.
Tags: Brighter Minds Media, Recession, Wii, WiiWare, World of Goo
Filed under: Business, General Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Wii
Following Nintendo’s revision to its profit forecast, a move which some analysts are calling “too cautious“, Nintendo’s shares have since dropped by 12 per cent — the largest fall Nintendo has seen in 18 years. Company president Satoru Iwata yesterday attempted to address many concerns that the business may have peaked:
“I think it is true that new information penetrates through the Japanese market very quickly and that Japanese people tend to get tired of something new very quickly,” Iwata stated. “It is also true that the population is smaller when compared with that of other major markets, so it is inevitable that the market starts to feel saturated earlier than others.”
Citing previous hardware generations, he noted that the U.S. has twice the sales potential of Japan. Europe, where Nintendo’s marketing has improved since the GameCube days, also presents growth opportunities.
Iwata also mentioned that the Nintendo DSi was one method Nintendo used to “reactivate the Japanese DS market”. Regarding the Wii, he stated that it’s “not impossible for the Wii’s total sales to exceed the final installed base of PS2“.
Tags: Nintendo DS, Nintendo DSi, Recession, Sales, Satoru Iwata, Wii
Filed under: Business, General Nintendo
Japanese analyst Hiroshi Kamide speculates that the Wii craze might be coming to an end, as Nintendo today cut its income forecasts by 33 per cent.
Although Nintendo still expects to finish the year in the black, “analysts described Nintendo’s guidance as a ‘baffling and potentially very worrying‘ sign for worldwide sales of the Wii as recession curtails household spending around the world”.
Part of the problem, according to games industry insiders in Japan and the UK, is that the pipeline of “must-have” Nintendo Wii software is less strong now than it was six months ago.
On the most widely read gaming websites, there are few forthcoming Wii titles generating the sort of excitement that preceded the release of Mario Galaxy or Smash Brothers.
One big source of margin destruction has been the soaring yen, which rose 24 per cent against the dollar and 30 per cent against the euro in 2008.
Filed under: Business, Competition, Research, Wii
Cowen analyst Doug Creutz has some new rough estimates based on Nintendo’s success and Sony’s struggle during last year’s holiday season:
- Sony will sell about 4 million PS3s in 2009, down from previous projections of 6.25 million units sold. Fewer PS3 sales in 2010 too, now projecting 4.5 million units sold vs 6.5 million previously.
- Wii picks up the slack: 8 million consoles to be sold in 2009 vs 6 million previous. More in 2010 too: 6 million vs old estimates of 4 million.
- Little change to Microsoft’s Xbox 360: Estimates fairly steady, Doug sees 4.25 million this year, and another 4 million in 2010.
The interesting thing is Doug sees total console sales fairly flat — it’s just Nintendo is grabbing more customers that otherwise would have been Sony’s.
Is Sony sure they aren’t in competition with Nintendo?
Tags: PlayStation 3, PS3, Sales, Sony, Wii
Filed under: Business, Competition, General Nintendo, Humor
Kaz Hirai, current Chairman and group CEO of Sony, has been taking a lot of heat lately for his recent comments dismissing Nintendo and Microsoft as competitors and claiming PlayStation is the “official” industry leader.
“This is not meant in terms of numbers, or who’s got the biggest install base, or who’s selling most in any particular week or month, but I’d like to think that we continue official leadership in this industry,” Hirai told Official PlayStation Magazine.
“It’s difficult to talk about Nintendo, because we don’t look at their console as being a competitor. They’re a different world, and we operate in our world - that’s the kind of way I look at things.
“And with the Xbox - again, I can’t come up with one word to fit. You need a word that describes something that lacks longevity,” he added with a laugh.
Today Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg responded to Hirai’s comments claiming that Sony is an “old hardware company that’s comfortable with its market position” and they’re “out of touch with where the industry and consumer is today”.
Tags: Kaz Hirai, Microsoft, PlayStation 3, Sony, Xbox 360
Filed under: Business, Rumors and speculation
A source talking to IGN claims that Sega laid off 30 employees earlier today.
Despite analysts’ beliefs early last year that the gaming industry would not be hit hard by the world’s economic strife, that has not been the case. Adding to the list of publishers cutting overhead is SEGA of America, which today laid off 30 employees. This according to a source inside SEGA.
It’s unknown if or how this might affect the releases of upcoming SEGA titles.
Update: This was later confirmed by Sega.
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