I wonder how much $$ Nintendo is losing

[Zaxxon]

All you MS/Xbox/Bill Gates haters react to the story that MS is losing money on the Xbox as if that's actually news. Who didn't know they were going to be losing money on their console launch years ago? Do you really think Nintendo is making money off anything but the GBA? That's been the case for years now. They were losing money on the N64 and only making money off the GBC. As if the Gamecube is really burning up the sales charts. Just because Nintendo is a private company and doesn't release this info doesn't mean it's not losing money like crazy. Is the general public even aware that Nintendo has a new console out? Is Sony even making money off their PS2 sales yet? Not likely. Nintendo is rapidly burning through their cash reserves and continue to lose mindshare and marketshare. They have no other side businesses to bring in income and no parent corp. to support them. Nintendo is already releasing a gimmicky "limited edition" Platinum version Gamecube to try and get people to hurry up and buy one. I know, I know... the games are coming, just wait. More sequels to sequels, Turok, Waverace, Mario, repeat.

[kobunheatforum]

Actually, you're wrong.

Nintendo made money on the N64 in both countries. During the years 1998 and 1999, Sony posted a LOSS on its Playstation business, but Nintendo made money with the N64.

No links handy to back this up, but Nintendo releases *detailed* financial statements each year. Check nintendo.co.jp.

[Mayhem]

Also Nintendo now make a profit on each GC sold... you still can't say that about M$ and the X-box...

Anyhow, Nintendo have released limited edition systems for quite a while. If it wasn't popular, why did Sega and Sony copy it for Dreamcast and PS2?!

[MankeyMan]

Nintendo recently said that in the last year they made $143million. Its on the Nikkei website I believe. They haven't actually made a loss for a considerable amount of time.

[NvrMore]

I concur that Nintendo did indeed make a tidy profit on the N64 despite it having lower sales than the PS1.

Also Nintendo isn't suffering losses due to piracy (which always has a undesirable monetary loss) because of their media and inbuilt encryption techniques.

As for attacking the quality of Nintendo's games.. well, that's just fighting a losing battle.

[asharru]

I donno, but I hope my girlfriend buys me a gamecube for my birthday on monday!!!

[Raedon]

I love people who theorize things just by looking at what they see at arms length. This isn't the first time someone has come in here and said, "I never owned or liked the N64, nor the Game Cube, therefore Nintendo must be doing bad!" heh

[Nature Boy]

The systems themselves are sold at a loss at the beginning of the life cycle. If they didn't sell them at a loss nobody would buy them because they'd be too pricey.

They eventually break even or profit on system sales because of economies of scale.

But the systems are more or less a loss leader for selling software. It's the software that companies make a killing on. It's like printers and razor blades. They sell the base unit dirt cheap and then charge you a fortune for the ink or blades after the fact.

Even though the N64 didn't have a huge installed base, Nintendo probably had well over 90% of console owners purchase Mario 64. And with Gamecube Luigi's Mansion wasn't quite as high a ratio but it was up there.

I'm curious as to what Saturn or Dreamcast did in terms of sales of Sega's own games. Is the Game Boy the only reason Nintendo continually makes money? Or did the N64 succeed on it's own because of the sheer volume of 1st party titles that were sold?

[strongmanx]

Wow, Zaxxon i bet you feel like an idiot. I personally think you should be banned for saying something so idiotic. Nah, I'm just kidding.

[Anonymous]

Actually, Kobun had it right. Nintendo is even making a profit on the gamecumbe, and did from day one.

[Achika]

Actually, Kobun had it right. Nintendo is even making a profit on the gamecumbe, and did from day one.

Wasn't it because they didn't have a DVD player like all the other systems?

Oh, and PS2 released a "LE" pack long before Nintendo did. It took Nintendo a year to release the Platinum Gamecube, it took Sony 8 months to release the Gran Turismo pack here in the US. If you want to get technical, Microsoft released an LE of the XBox in the first 4 months. We never got the see-thru XBox stateside.

[Arrrhalomynn]

I'm not so sure about about nintendo making a profit on the gamecube. In 2002 they made a profit of 150 million, which is 45 percent lower than the year before. They blamed the strong competition on the console and games market for this. Since they don't have competition for the game boy and the game boy has been going as strong as ever, the lower profit must be caused by the game cube.
The n64 wasn't a very good moneymaker either (face it, fanboys, it sold quite poorly) and now they make even less money with the game cube. suspicious, don't you think?

But of course it's just speculation untill you see a full financial report. Which nobody has seen here.

[digitalpress]

I read threads like this one and the various Xbox posts about their financial troubles and I wonder.

WHO CARES.

I mean really. Nintendo and MicroSoft are NOT gonna go belly up based on the sales of the GameCube or Xbox. So whether you're concerned that your favorite console is going to go away in the near future or that the company you've been rooting AGAINST might have finally dug their grave, you're wasting your time. Time that should be spent enjoying the games.

If you buy stock in MS or Nintendo that's another matter, but something tells me this isn't the reason why these issues are important.

[Mr. NEStalgia]

It seems to me that they're losing money. But, that's just based on the fact that I know a bunch of people with PS2's, a few with X-Box's, but not one with a Gamecube. I DO know a few people with GBA's though.

-=Mr. NEStalgia=-

[Anonymous]

Well it's relevant to me since I work there. And speaking of which this means I know for a fact that Nintendo makes money on all of its hardware, and has never taken a hit on any of its console sales. They continually have profitable years, even if some are less profitable than others.

A lot of people on this forum and elsewhere in the gaming community think that Nintendo is losing money, and I think that that perception is ok with Nintendo, because that view is only held by this (the general GenX gamers, not the DP forum crowd) community (as opposed to the old white guys who do bidness with NCL and NOA). The fact of the matter is, Nintendo always makes money. They just make money in a differenty market. The little kids and the old ladies who play Pokemon and Zelda don't (generally speaking) visit this site, so they can't voice their opinions, but Nintendo is making a lot of money.

[quick edit to address the post below] - God it must suck when you lose 837 million yen to freaking currency fluctuations.

[IGotTheDot]

This was in the LA Times today. I cut and pasted so you don't have to go through the registration process. Basically it says that profits dropped due to poor sales in Japan and a weak economy.

Nintendo Co. said Thursday that it had lower revenue and profit for the six months ended Sept. 30, hurt by flagging sales of its Game Boy Advance hand-held game console, a weak Japanese economy, and a strong yen that devalued overseas revenue.

Net income fell 45% to $155 million, down from $280 million in the same period last year. Sales slumped 7.8% to $1.7 billion from $1.84 billion a year earlier. It has $3.8 billion in cash. The Kyoto, Japan-based company, which makes Pokemon video games and the GameCube video game console, reports results semiannually.

Nintendo shares were down 56 cents at $11.75 in U.S. over-the-counter trading.

Analysts say much of Nintendo's weakness can be attributed to soft sales in Japan, where the economy remains mired in a recession. Between April and September, unit sales in Japan of Game Boy Advance fell 61% compared with a year earlier, while GameCube sales dropped by one-third.

"The decline in sales was primarily in Japan," said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities, which does not own Nintendo shares and does not conduct business with the company.

A rising yen also contributed to Nintendo's declining financials, since the company received 83% of its revenue from outside Japan. Between March 31 and Sept. 30, the yen gained 8% against the U.S. dollar, contributing to a $237-million loss due to currency conversions.

Nintendo, which sold 6.68 million GameCubes worldwide, is tied for second place with Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox in the console market. Sony Corp., with more than 40 million PlayStation 2 consoles sold, holds the No. 1 spot. Nintendo last month cut its profit forecast 11% to $657 million for the full year ending March 31.

[Nature Boy]

So whether you're concerned that your favorite console is going to go away in the near future or that the company you've been rooting AGAINST might have finally dug their grave, you're wasting your time. Time that should be spent enjoying the games.

This is a good point to bring up. I know you're not directing it at me necessarily, but I will say that I don't care either way. I just find the topic an interesting one.

And I don't mean anything negative towards anybody, but it is definitely easier to keep up a topic like this one than it is about a game. I just finished Halo and I'd love to talk to others about the experience, but not only is the game a year old now, the conversation wouldn't last 10 posts anyway really. It'd just be a bunch of people agreeing with each other.

[digitalpress]

And I don't mean anything negative towards anybody, but it is definitely easier to keep up a topic like this one than it is about a game. I just finished Halo and I'd love to talk to others about the experience, but not only is the game a year old now, the conversation wouldn't last 10 posts anyway really. It'd just be a bunch of people agreeing with each other.

You wanna bet? I find Halo rather boring. Also I have yet to see ten people here agree on ANYTHING :P

[Arcade Antics]

You wanna bet? I find Halo rather boring.

And all along I thought I was the lone Halo Holdout. I'd much rather play Pac-Man. On the 2600.

[digitalpress]

I just finished Halo and I'd love to talk to others about the experience, but not only is the game a year old now, the conversation wouldn't last 10 posts anyway really.

Not to get on your case, NB, but we pretty much talk about stuff that's older than a year all the time, don't we? I've seen lots of great threads about older games. The Doki Doki Panic thread is probably still floating around, for a recent example.

Anyway, sorry to hijack this thread about how much money Nintendo does or does not have. But not really :P