• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Nintendo is probably leaving millions of dollars off their books not supporting PC

360fps

Neo Member
Nintendo strategy prints money, they won't go to PC as long as their consoles become invalid and PC handhelds may eventually do that as in;

I helped my nephew and nieces build a PC which was costlier than just buying a Switch but also gifted them ~50 Steam games which made the PC a cheaper option than buying a Switch. Now I can gift them a Steam Deck as well and all 3 of them are covered with the same family Steam library. Also they needed a PC for homework regardless which Switch won't help.
 

360fps

Neo Member
Games keeps getting more expensive anyway, it's their decision.
Not probably Nintendo games, they are all cartoony with no actors or CGI involved in. Look how low effort was the Pokemon games, Palworld had more effort and quality than Scarlet&Violet.
 

HofT

Banned
Nintendo is like the Apple of the gaming industry. They're a closed system because they're the only ones with the IPs that can do that.
 

NanaMiku

Gold Member
Not probably Nintendo games, they are all cartoony with no actors or CGI involved in. Look how low effort was the Pokemon games, Palworld had more effort and quality than Scarlet&Violet.
I always find it funny that Pokemon are always chosen as an example. It's not made by Nintendo lol

Xenoblade 3 may have anime style, but it has one of the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen in games

IMG_3572-1024x576.jpg
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I always find it funny that Pokemon are always chosen as an example. It's not made by Nintendo lol

Xenoblade 3 may have anime style, but it has one of the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen in games

IMG_3572-1024x576.jpg
Monolith Soft makes beautiful games even with limited power.
 

Švejk

Banned
When people stop paying full retail $60 for their 7 year old titles, maybe they'd consider other sources of revenue.
 

360fps

Neo Member
I always find it funny that Pokemon are always chosen as an example. It's not made by Nintendo lol

Xenoblade 3 may have anime style, but it has one of the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen in games

IMG_3572-1024x576.jpg
Artistically yes it looks good but all you need a good artist for that which is much more cheaper than creating realistic eyes on a realistic looking game.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
If I was a shareholder, I'd be all over Nintendo to start supporting the PC platform.

Can you imagine a game like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom releasing on PC? Mind boggling.

Have they commented previously about why they don't support PC?

It's hard to process the money they're missing out on.

Why stop at PC? Why not Mac as well? Why not PlayStation and Xbox? Why not just go full third-party? Simply put, it doesn't make financial sense for Nintendo to do so at this time.

I'm pretty sure This comes down to hardware sales. Unlike other platforms, Nintendo make money on their hardware and they're hardware sales are extremely successful.
 

IAmRei

Member
Alot of Sony games have been selling close to 10million or over.. They also dont need to do it

Total sales numbers doesnt reflect incomes. Nintendo games almost rarely discounted. Meanwhile there is ps plus / discounts in sony side.

"Full prices" x "n" millions vs "Average prices" x "n" millions could differ the result
 

Dorfdad

Gold Member
If I’m gonna be honest, Nintendo is the best company poised to be a cloud gaming provider.

Their games are based on older technology, which would reduce the size of file streams, and their resolution is only up to 1080 P, which would be easy to replicate over cloud nowadays.

They could easily rotate games in and out of their service on a bi-monthly Schedule and make bank.
 

bigdad2007

Member
Where Nintendo is really losing money isn’t by going third party. Just look at sales figures Nintendo hardware is doing just fine. Going third party would tank that.

Where they are leaving money on the table is by having a premium “pro” model that costs like $700.

Valve has more or less proven that a vast majority of people will splurge for the more expensive version of a console given the choice to get more performance.

Heck it would also stop all the clamoring for an emulator because there would be no way a PC would be able to emulate what a “pro” model of the Switch 2 could achieve.
 

Scotty W

Banned
Same for not having a shit load of back catalogue games available on their store.

Easy money they just don't.
You have to accept that just because you want something, doesn’t mean that a business should do it.

There are many old games I would love to have readily available. However, Nintendo’s strategy of timely rereleases is better than putting it all out at once.

A rerelease can ease a dry spell. A good example of this is Wind Waker on the Wii U. Or it can pad an otherwise sparse time, like Mario RPG or Metroid Prime. Most importantly, it sustains interest, like when Earthbound and Mother were released on NSO.

From a manufacturers perspective, you either sustain interest, or you release it all for a large initial win, but with diminishing returns over time.
 

Kokoloko85

Member
Total sales numbers doesnt reflect incomes. Nintendo games almost rarely discounted. Meanwhile there is ps plus / discounts in sony side.

"Full prices" x "n" millions vs "Average prices" x "n" millions could differ the result
Spiderman 2 and GOWR, all sold 10 million before 5 months. Pretty sure they werent heavily discounted.

They are selling fine and making enough profit, dont you worry for them lol
 

SHA

Member
Not probably Nintendo games, they are all cartoony with no actors or CGI involved in. Look how low effort was the Pokemon games, Palworld had more effort and quality than Scarlet&Violet.
It's not a secret, they use the latest tech and surprise us every time, give it a try, you wouldn't be disappointed.
 
Last edited:

Shifty1897

Member
They're literally the richest company in Japan so they don't exactly need the money, but I'm sure it's the modding and piracy scene that makes the PC conversion a non-starter for Nintendo.
 

Bkdk

Member
Eventually they will, as the most die hard console people will buy it on console anyway, while many of the pc crowd will almost never buy a console title without the pc features, so not releasing games on pc almost equals to losing money for sure, sony is starting to realize this thus they release games on pc after 2 years.
 

Damigos

Member
Nintendo know what they re doing.
They re here for the long run. Their brand is stronger than ever and they will probably resort to PC and/or back compat games only when their current model stops working.
Which it wont
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
Here are some reasons why they wouldn't want to release on PC
  • People who buy Nintendo consoles for their games will no longer buy their consoles
    • Nintendo actually makes money selling consoles
      • Selling more consoles usualy means selling more games and accesories.
        • Not just their own games but with more people with Switches they'll buy other peoples games which Nintendo gets a royalty for
  • PC makes their games easier to pirate
  • They don't have the resources to release games on PC and would need to invest money hiring people with the skillset which is not plentiful
    • If you recall lots of early Japanese ports had major problems
  • Almost half of Nintendo games sales are through their own digital storefront where they get pretty much all the revenue to themselves.
    • Compared to the 30% Steam is going to take
      • They could create their own launcher but that would just eat away at the benefit
Whether or not they still end up on top by reachin more people it's hard to say for sure. But it's not as simple as more game sales equal more money.

This is an excellent, excellent post which means over half the people who see it will lose the ability to read just for its duration.
 
In contrast to PS and Xbox, there's probably much less overlap between their core audience and the PC crowd. You can't forget how many Switch units are in the hands of minors because their parents gave them to them. At least a portion of the catalogue (Bayonetta, Fire Emblem) could be very successful on the PC, and we can be sure lots of people would buy them if they could. The question is do these projected software sales make up for the loss of sales in hardware (so basically PCMR people buying Switches)? I'd actually bet yes.
 
Nintendo: Biggest company in Japan with over 50 of the 100 best selling games of all time. Best selling current gen platform, on course to be the best selling console of all time.

They sure need your advice.
 

manzo

Member
Nintendo doesn’t need PC. The only reason why I’d love to see Nintendo games outside their own hardware is the performance and image quality upgrades that their poor hardware causes.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Considering Nintendo IPs are the most valuable gaming IPs they are doing something very right.
Not 'doing'. They 'did' something very right around 30-40 years ago.

The kind of closed off attitude Nintendo has today could very well kill it in the long term. If Switch 2 doesn't deliver they could be in for a very bad time and nowhere else to run.
 

DarthPutin

Member
They should put all their games on PC so... first PC gaming handheld to go mainstream will begin to replace Nintendo Switch, as it will be able to play both Nintendo games and all PC games. Bought by parents to their kids and casual audience that would never bother with emulation.
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
I haven't bought any Nintendo games on console since the end of the GBA era, so...yeah, pretty much.

Nintendo could make millions and millions out of their own exclusive PC store, at least as long as it's reasonably functional (ie: better than Epic's).

No need to deal with Steam if they're afraid of losing on the margins. Perhaps one day they will take that step. In the meanwhile...there's always emulation.

The amount of money that Nintendo misses out on by not catering to people in your situation is peanuts compared what they rake in with their current strategy.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
No they're not, because they own and control their own platform, which is the most valuable thing by far. Which is why it is kind of baffling that 2 of the 3 platform holders volunteered to give that up. It's better to own the pond than be a small fish in a big one.
 

Neff

Member
They're rich as fuck doing what they do. They absolutely shame the entire industry when it comes to sheer profit. The reason Sony and Microsoft are putting games on PC is because the bleeding edge games they make aren't profitable enough. Their operating costs are relatively low and their units/attach rates are sky high, because if you want Nintendo, you have to buy a Nintendo. Their business model works so well it's practically a monopoly.

If making games for PC was worth compomising that monopoly, they'd do it. But it isn't, so they won't.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Nintendo have no need to expand.

They have a highly profitable, entirely self-sufficient niche, and they are good with that.

From the perspective of a tech giant, yes they could massively increase short-term profitability by servicing other platforms, but in the mid to long-term the outcomes wouldn't be so clear-cut. Which isn't an issue for a megacorp like MS as all they care about is IP control because they have multiple ways to monetize what they own.

From Nintendo's perspective however that would just expose them to an existential threat of losing their ability to sell proprietary branded hardware and lose all the benefits that entails... so of course they'll laugh them out of the room.

Sony are in a kind of half-way position where they care about the Playstation brand and business model, but also have a bunch of other businesses that could benefit from wider exposure/monetization of Playstation-centric brands.

To be honest the "big picture" view simply shows why MS should never have gotten into the console business in the first place. It flies in the face of their overall corporate mission.
 

BlackTron

Gold Member
No they're not, because they own and control their own platform, which is the most valuable thing by far. Which is why it is kind of baffling that 2 of the 3 platform holders volunteered to give that up. It's better to own the pond than be a small fish in a big one.

I'm not that baffled. Management just sucks and is obsessed with padding the short-term. See it everywhere now. By not caving to instant gratification, Nintendo is a modern outlier among big name companies.

Of course, gamers think it's super smart because they benefit from it too. At least, in the short term. Ask Xbox fans how their outlook is lately. Sony should not be testing the waters of following in their footsteps.
 

SHA

Member
Not probably Nintendo games, they are all cartoony with no actors or CGI involved in. Look how low effort was the Pokemon games, Palworld had more effort and quality than Scarlet&Violet.
It's obvious, the next one should be better, or they should stay in their lala land.
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
Dena complained that they could make way more money on mobile if Nintendo would let them monetize theirs games more.

Nintendo cares about some things more than money, like control, and their brand.
 

NickFire

Member
Nintendo hasn't put themselves in a position where they need to chase new customers. But if they want to release games elsewhere I won't complain.
 

Woopah

Member
At this point they are pulling back on mobile and being less multiplatform not more.

They won't go to PC unless they face the same margin issues that Sony/MS are facing.
 

TAS

Member
It might be true that they have the highest value with no debt, but they are far from the highest value. Toyota for example is a 59.1 trillion company.
Actually I think it's closer to 50 trillion (Yen) not dollars. Nintendo is at 10+ trillion Yen which is somewhere around 70+ billion dollars. So yes, Toyota is a much higher value company but Nintendo is in the unique position of having no debt and billions in cash.
 
Top Bottom