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Originally Posted by spong To quote the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, "There is no way we are going to win competing in the same arena as electronics and computer makers," a senior Nintendo official said. "Our best option is to build on our software development abilities."

http://www.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=6172

Reports on IGN and Gamespot among others say the news is false, but still it doesn't sound all that promising for the Big N we've all come to know and love. I think if they do make one more system and it loses money it will probably be their last, Sega had three losing systems and look at them. Who knows what to think though with all the new Nintendo DS stuff...Maybe their trying to go with portable gaming systems only.

"So as the gaming market shrinks, Nintendo ... will instead seek to survive by concentrating on the market for children".

This is what is killing them in the first place.

I love what the one guy says:

"Sure the design on the GameCube doesn't help either, next to the PS2, it looks like a Fisher Price "My First Console". "

Nintendo has never been in any situation even closely resembling Sega's situation right before they pulled the plug on the Dreamcast. People forget to factor a couple of things when they spell doom on Nintendo. Firstly, Nintendo's games sell better than Sega games, period. Sega has had 1 million seller in Japan. Nintendo has had over 40. Just putting things in perspective. Secondly, Nintendo has enjoyed many years of success in the portable gaming market, whereas Sega tried and failed in that market. Sega was never really in Nintendo's league. The Genesis was the high point of Sega, and while the userbase of that system may've surpassed the SNES's userbase at one point in time, software sales for Sega have never surpassed Nintendo's. With the Genesis dying early, the SNES quickly ate up any lead the Genesis may've had.

History.

I'll tell you what......if Nintendo does decide to go the software-only/handheld hardware route, it will be interesting to see who the beneficiary of portable connectivity. I mean, they can make games for both platforms, but chances are that only 1 will be compatable with whatever new handheld Nintendo comes out with (Nintendo would be foolish to abandon connectivity altogether). My guess would be that they'd go to Microsoft, as Sony will have their PSP.

Many fracnchises that are exclusive to Nintendo are keeping it afloat. Pokemon, Zelda, Metroid, Mario, F-Zero, Smash Bros, Animal Crossing etc. are very good sellers for Nintendo. If any system is in "trouble" it is the Xbox, which does not have many titles that are 1. exlusive to it that are also great sellers and 2. has not had many top 10 sellers in recent months. Sales of the Gameboy Advance also aid Nintendo and Holiday sales of the Gamecube were much better than Sony or Microsoft, so it is my guess that they are not in dire straights.

You're right Microsoft is still in last worldwide, but don't forget both they and Sony have far more income as a company than Nintendo (and just about any compnay for that matter). In fact, I've heard it said before that when microsoft drops the price to meet Gamecube (it'll happen sometime I'm sure) they will be losing money on every one sold. But they don't seem to care. As for exclusive titles, every year Microsoft's number of quality exclusive titles goes up. I can think of at least 5 for this year.

You're also right about nintendo having great holiday sales, but that was due to two things. 1.) the bundel with Zelda which isn't around anymore. And 2.) The price drop, which will help them sell Gamecubes, but Microsoft and Sony will soon drop their prices too, and what then.

Do I really think Nintendo is dead? Not at all, like you said they are still doing well worldwide. I think they will stay in the home console business until they are bankrupt, but I definately think they are losing ground in the US Market and that could hurt them.

spong is never right, and scrubking is always stupid. 2 strikes against this one.

Originally Posted by suprsaiyanMAX You're right Microsoft is still in last worldwide, but don't forget both they and Sony have far more income as a company than Nintendo (and just about any compnay for that matter). In fact, I've heard it said before that when microsoft drops the price to meet Gamecube (it'll happen sometime I'm sure) they will be losing money on every one sold.

Actually, I believe thay have been losing money even when it was at 299.99 they just wanted to establish a user base or something of the sort for when XBox 2 was coming out. Then try to get some money there.

Don't forget that as a company Nintendo has more cash in reserve than Sony, and maybe Microsoft too. They're sitting on billions, and always have. Don't count them out yet.

Nintendo ... will instead seek to survive by concentrating on the market for children". This is what is killing them in the first place.

I bought a Cube specifiocally because it's targeted to children. I have a 4 year old son who loves Kirby, Pokemon, Mario, and Fox. I know many an old-skool gamer with kids who bought a Cube for the same reason. Every 5-15 year old I see waiting in an airport, doctor's office, DMV, or restauraunt seems to be spending time with a GBA in hand. Somehow I don't think marketing to kids is Killing Nintendo.

Quality 3d party games is, and the fact that they only develop 2-3 big in-house titles a year. Yeah, Mario cart and Metroid sell a lot of copies, but when that's all you can release in a year, that leaves a lot of extra cash for people to pick up 5-10 PS2 blockbusters a year. Just look at the game wall in any game store. There are 4 times as many games for the PS2, twice as many availible for the Xbox.

Originally Posted by bmulligan I bought a Cube specifiocally because it's targeted to children. I have a 4 year old son who loves Kirby, Pokemon, Mario, and Fox. I know many an old-skool gamer with kids who bought a Cube for the same reason. Every 5-15 year old I see waiting in an airport, doctor's office, DMV, or restauraunt seems to be spending time with a GBA in hand. Somehow I don't think marketing to kids is Killing Nintendo. Quality 3d party games is, and the fact that they only develop 2-3 big in-house titles a year. Yeah, Mario cart and Metroid sell a lot of copies, but when that's all you can release in a year, that leaves a lot of extra cash for people to pick up 5-10 PS2 blockbusters a year. Just look at the game wall in any game store. There are 4 times as many games for the PS2, twice as many availible for the Xbox.

What I meant was that by focusing on only one part of the market, you're hurting yourself. Parents are the ones who buy games for their children, and even then, I'm guessing that they will only buy a few games a year for their kids, like my parents did. People in their late teens to even early thirties are perhaps an even larger market, and since they control their money, they are more likely to spontaneously buy more games per year. Hence why the PS2, with more adult titles, is the current reigning champ.

Do Not Feed The Trolls.

wii proves all

Originally Posted by mosey73 wii proves all

Thanks for needlessly resurrecting this thread.

And with that, I'm off to go comment on a dead blog that covered the '04 election. Those suckers are gonna get hammered by my years-later perspective. Boo yaa!

if you haven't noticed, this whole forum is dead..

Who says this place is dead?

Originally Posted by Scobie Thanks for needlessly resurrecting this thread. And with that, I'm off to go comment on a dead blog that covered the '04 election. Those suckers are gonna get hammered by my years-later perspective. Boo yaa!

I wouldn't say resurrecting the thread was "needless".

It does, afterall, prove that in the long run, people are generally stupid.