Nintendo Looks to Online as It Reports Its First Loss
Saturday, January 28th, 2012It’s been a tough year for game giant Nintendo. Sales of its 3DS portable gaming platform were disappointing and its top-selling but flagging Wii console is now caught between the groundbreaking, motion-sensing version introduced in 2006 and the refreshed Wii U due sometime this year.
That has led to sagging figures for the Kyoto, Japan-based company, which reported its first loss this week since it began reporting numbers in 1981. For the fiscal year ending in March, Nintendo expects to be down $264 million, according to Bloomberg news. The company forecast $9.8 billion in revenue, revised downward by 16.5 percent from October projections.
Time For Something New
In mid-2011, Nintendo said it lost about $327 million in the quarter ending in June, and it cut the price of the first-of-its kind 3D-enabled handheld game, successor to the DS, from $249.99 to $169.99. This week the company lowered its projection of 3DS sales from 16 million to 14 million, and lowered its Wii projection from 12 million to 10 million for the fiscal year.
The downturn likely has much to do with soaring sales of smartphones and tablets, which can download hundreds of thousands of game offerings. But it’s also a question of content offerings by Nintendo, which has failed to keep up with rivals Sony and Microsoft in third-party game titles and hasn’t enhanced its online user experience much.
Now, the company thinks it has an answer in the Nintendo Network, which will allow users to download content, create online profiles and play with other users online, like Microsoft’s Xbox Live and Sony’s PlayStation Network. It will be available for users of the Wii and 3DS, both of which are Wi-Fi enabled.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told investors Friday that the Nintendo Network was coming soon, but did not announce a date. It will…
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