Nintendo has nearly 10x the assets of Microsoft?

[futurefields]

According to Wikipedia Nintendo has 1.3-1.4 trillion in assets, while Microsoft has 170 billion.

So in theory couldn't Nintendo afford to build a super mega powerful console? They could take a loss on hardware and recoup in software, everybody would buy a powerful new Nintendo system.

And I believe the CPU they should use is a PowerPC similar to the one in WiiU but instead, double the clock speed and core count. This would enable them to do tick-tock emulation ridiculously easily for everything since Gamecube. They could even continue to develop games for the WiiU while developing games for the new system, and just have them be 720p/30 on the Wiiu and 1080p/60 on the new system.

 

[Xed]

According to Wikipedia Nintendo has 1.3-1.4 trillion in assets, while Microsoft has 170 billion.

You really believe that? It's about 10 billion with 5 billion in cash. Probably less now.

 

[lamedude]

That's in yen.

 

[Sulaco]

According to Wikipedia Nintendo has 1.3-1.4 trillion in assets, while Microsoft has 170 billion.

So in theory couldn't Nintendo afford to build a super mega powerful console? They could take a loss on hardware and recoup in software, everybody would buy a powerful new Nintendo system.

And I believe the CPU they should use is a PowerPC similar to the one in WiiU but instead, double the clock speed and core count. This would enable them to do tick-tock emulation ridiculously easily for everything since Gamecube. They could even continue to develop games for the WiiU while developing games for the new system, and just have them be 720p/30 on the Wiiu and 1080p/60 on the new system.

*sigh*

Posting in a futurefields thread...

 

[KentState]

In theory you would know the difference between 1 trillion yen and 1 trillion US dollars.

 

[Fulle]

OK, thoughts on the OP's post:

1.) 1 Yen is roughly .01 USD. LOL @ thinking Nintendo could have trillians of dollars!
2.) The PS4 and Xbox One sold pretty well, selling for cost, or even a small profit, at launch. Both are selling for a profit right now. This was an adjustment in strategy, since Sony and MS lost billions of dollars early in the last console lifecyle trying to sell the PS3 and Xbox 360 at a loss, and make it up in software sales.
- The Wii U actually released at a price-point where Nintendo lost money on the console sale, but broke even after a single 1st party software sale.

Price is a big consideration, since with the PS4 and Xbox One sales history, it shows that customers who buy consoles might not be tolerant of any new machine over $400 USD. The Xbox One and PS4 have been aggressively dropping in price, to where this winter you could have picked one up with a bundled game for $300. Past Nintendo consoles, like the 3DS, showed that Nintendo's fanbase is VERY price sensitive, and will flat-out not buy a new Nintendo console if it's priced too high, as opposed to small portions of the Microsoft and Sony fanbases that will buy expensive consoles.

Considering the above, Nintendo would be in dangerous territory trying to sell a new console over $300.

3.) The PowerPC based system idea has some merits, but from what I've heard, Nintendo wants better ability to develop for mobile and home console games simultaneously. With that goal, it probably won't be possible to keep backwards compatibility.

It's also important that Nintendo makes a system that works well with 3rd party middleware, so that they can get back western big publisher support.

 

[futurefields]

I forgot I made this thread. After thinking about it some more I think Nintendo is almost in a hopeless situation. How could they ever compete with Sony and Microsoft again? Like you guys said they use yen not dollars.

 

[Lil Frier]

This thread is a big wave of emotions.

Nintendo doesn't have to compete with the others. They never really have, yet there they are. They don't spend as much on their products. You don't have to be king of the castle to be a functioning business.

 

[Fulle]

I forgot I made this thread. After thinking about it some more I think Nintendo is almost in a hopeless situation. How could they ever compete with Sony and Microsoft again? Like you guys said they use yen not dollars.

Nintendo has around $10 billion in cash reserves, which is a LOT of money for a company. The worst months in the last couple of years, they were only slightly in the red, and currently they're turning a profit again.

This is their second major home console that has sold poorly, and both times they managed to keep from losing money. When they've been successful, like with the Wii, DS, or 3DS, they've made a LOT of money.

 

[007ELmO]

They should take ownership of having no (good) 3rd party support and just say this console is for playing Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and StarFox. Buy it for $200.

 

[ImpulsE69]

This thread is a big wave of emotions.

Nintendo doesn't have to compete with the others. They never really have, yet there they are. They don't spend as much on their products. You don't have to be king of the castle to be a functioning business.

Many people forget this.

 

[Rezist]

OK, thoughts on the OP's post:

1.) 1 Yen is roughly .01 USD. LOL @ thinking Nintendo could have trillians of dollars!
2.) The PS4 and Xbox One sold pretty well, selling for cost, or even a small profit, at launch. Both are selling for a profit right now. This was an adjustment in strategy, since Sony and MS lost billions of dollars early in the last console lifecyle trying to sell the PS3 and Xbox 360 at a loss, and make it up in software sales.
- The Wii U actually released at a price-point where Nintendo lost money on the console sale, but broke even after a single 1st party software sale.

Price is a big consideration, since with the PS4 and Xbox One sales history, it shows that customers who buy consoles might not be tolerant of any new machine over $400 USD. The Xbox One and PS4 have been aggressively dropping in price, to where this winter you could have picked one up with a bundled game for $300. Past Nintendo consoles, like the 3DS, showed that Nintendo's fanbase is VERY price sensitive, and will flat-out not buy a new Nintendo console if it's priced too high, as opposed to small portions of the Microsoft and Sony fanbases that will buy expensive consoles.

Considering the above, Nintendo would be in dangerous territory trying to sell a new console over $300.

3.) The PowerPC based system idea has some merits, but from what I've heard, Nintendo wants better ability to develop for mobile and home console games simultaneously. With that goal, it probably won't be possible to keep backwards compatibility.

It's also important that Nintendo makes a system that works well with 3rd party middleware, so that they can get back western big publisher support.

I dunno I'm kinda hoping Nintendo does the ARM route, it would really help tie there mobile and home consoles together.

 

[007ELmO]

I don't play any mobile games whatsoever. When I emulate Megaman 2 on a PSP though, I feel like, this is the way megaman 2 should be played - in my hands. I don't touch my 3DS more than once a year.

Nintendo has a confusing direction towards who their audience is. Older gamers will still play Mario/Zelda/etc. on their consoles, but the 3DS audience is a little stranger. I own one and I feel like I've "outgrown" it, but as we get older we have less time to play games- it seems to be easier to play a handheld game than a console game. I don't like Nintendo going the ARM/mobile route.

I would like them to go VR. I would like Facebook to partner with Nintendo.

 

[Fulle]

I dunno I'm kinda hoping Nintendo does the ARM route, it would really help tie there mobile and home consoles together.

AMD has been working on X86 tablet APUs for a while, actually, so an X86 based APU in a Nintendo mobile device isn't that far fetched. On the other hand, ARM cores have the potential to scale up to be quite a bit more powerful than those little Jaguar cores in the PS4/Xbox One, so ARM in a Nintendo home console isn't crazy either.

I just hope that whatever they do, that they make their platform more 3rd party dev friendly.

 

[heymrdj]

This thread is a big wave of emotions.

Nintendo doesn't have to compete with the others. They never really have, yet there they are. They don't spend as much on their products. You don't have to be king of the castle to be a functioning business.[/QUOTE]

Worker happiness would be much higher if people took that to heart.

"Coke profits dropped .15$ today below target, sell the stock!" -Shareholders
"People are selling stock, we have to be more profitable, fire 800 people!" -Companies

It's not good enough to simply be profitable. We must always be growing, always making more money, always doing better than the other business.

 

[ImpulsE69]

As I've always said, Wall Street is the root of all evil and woes. There are many levels to it, but being a good person isn't one of them.

 

[Blanky]

This thread is a big wave of emotions.

Nintendo doesn't have to compete with the others. They never really have, yet there they are. They don't spend as much on their products. You don't have to be king of the castle to be a functioning business.

Nintendo has always competed and always has to and always will. The fact there are billions of "this vs that" dialogues throughout the history of gaming pretty much sinks this non-compete argument like somehow Nintendo has its very own space in an extremely competitive arena.

 

[CZroe]

Nintendo has always competed and always has to and always will. The fact there are billions of "this vs that" dialogues throughout the history of gaming pretty much sinks this non-compete argument like somehow Nintendo has its very own space in an extremely competitive arena.

They do, which is why I own a Wii U but no PS4 or XBOX One. There are many of us even if there aren't AS many of us. There are many more who would buy a Wii U first for the same reason.

There are enough of us to float Nintendo through a long string of "failed" consoles. They really do not have to compete in that way no matter how often they are compared.

 

[Oyeve]

Zelda and Pokemon. Nintendo is just fine.

 

[CZroe]

Zelda and Pokemon. Nintendo is just fine.

Can't leave out Mario and Metroid. Heck, Smash alone could keep them afloat at this point.

 

[Oyeve]

Can't leave out Mario and Metroid. Heck, Smash alone could keep them afloat at this point.

Yep. And with the Smash DLC coming soon i see even more $$$ for nintendo! And I believe they now own the rights to Bayonetta.

 

[Fulle]

They do, which is why I own a Wii U but no PS4 or XBOX One. There are many of us even if there aren't AS many of us. There are many more who would buy a Wii U first for the same reason.

There are enough of us to float Nintendo through a long string of "failed" consoles. They really do not have to compete in that way no matter how often they are compared.

Nintendo is a business that has continued to be profitable during some rough times, but if I was a shareholder I would be pretty angry, because they've been bleeding marketshare to Playstation and Xbox.

So, I don't think this happened overnight, first of all. With the Wii, the big sales numbers to non-gamers hid the fact that there was marketshare loss to PS3 and Xbox360 during that time period. So where Gamecube sold over 20 million to gamers, the Wii might have sold like 16 million, but it wasn't noticable due to the big sales numbers to non gamers. That marketshare bleed has continued with the PS4 and Xbox One, but now there's no non-gamer sales to hide it, so the Wii U's sales numbers look like more of a dramatic drop then they should.

Nintendo does NOT exist in some vacuum where Sony and Microsoft's actions don't effect them. If that was true, there would be like 30 million Wii U sales.

Anyway, it's not that grim for Nintendo, though, since if you look at Playstation and Xbox sales have shown that if gamers are willing to move between platforms if they like what they see. I don't consider the marketshare Nintendo lost to be gone forever, since customers should return if they make a better console and improve their platform.

 

[ImpulsE69]

You are correct, but you are STILL missing the point that you don't have to be #1 or even #2 to be profitable or successful. That is a misnomer. Unfortunately in todays world it is expected or you are failing.

The sadder thing here that no one is talking about is that Nintendo didn't show a profit for a few years until the Amibos started coming out, and those aren't even being bought by people with WiiU's.

 

[Fulle]

You are correct, but you are STILL missing the point that you don't have to be #1 or even #2 to be profitable or successful. That is a misnomer. Unfortunately in todays world it is expected or you are failing.

The sadder thing here that no one is talking about is that Nintendo didn't show a profit for a few years until the Amibos started coming out, and those aren't even being bought by people with WiiU's.

Yeah, we're in this culture now where publicly traded companies have to be making "record profits" every quarter, or they're failing, and it's not good for the long term health of a business in a lot of cases. I'd say that in Nintendo's case, though, they've been treated with a lot of patience.

I agree Amiibos sold to a lot of customers in North America in particular, who did not own a Wii U. Nintendo has a lot of potential in toy and collectible merchandising that they hadn't been exploiting until just now.

 

[CZroe]

Nintendo was a toy company before they were a videogame company.

Also, the 2DS/3DS is compatible with Amiibos, so their relevance to Wii U sales isn't as solid as we might think.