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[jcm]

Rambo. He modeled a post about the Wii U around the speech at the end of Rambo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfdbcG0BTSk

It's BRILLIANTLY parodying this bit of Stallone's dialogue from First Blood:

Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off! It wasn't my war! You asked me, I didn't ask you! And I did what I had to do to win! But somebody wouldn't let us win! And I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap! Who are they to protest me? Who are they? Unless they've been me and been there and know what the hell they're yelling about.

We were in this bar in Saigon and this kid comes up, this kid carrying a shoe-shine box. And he says "Shine, please, shine!" I said no. He kept askin', yeah, and Joey said "Yeah." And I went to get a couple of beers, and the box was wired, and he opened up the box, fucking blew his body all over the place. And he's laying there, he's fucking screaming. There's pieces of him all over me, just...like this, and I'm tryin' to pull him off, you know, my friend that's all over me! I've got blood and everything and I'm tryin' to hold him together! I'm puttin'...the guy's fuckin' insides keep coming out! And nobody would help! Nobody would help! He's saying, sayin' "I wanna go home! I wanna go home!" He keeps calling my name! "I wanna go home, Johnny! I wanna drive my Chevy!" I said "With what? I can't find your fuckin' legs! I can't find your legs!"

Thanks guys. That is, in fact, good shit.

 

[dallow_bg]

Exactly, all those that think this is a good idea dont have any experience with how products should be handle. Nintendo lowers the price now and Wii U is finished.

You mean like how the original iPhone's price was dropped $200 on all models just 2 months after release?

Finished.

 

[Pachterballs]

As a huge pikmin fan, anyone seriously using it as a factor to say "pikmin3" will push wiiU sales are deluded to the extremes.

A niche wii up-port years late isn't going to do shit. Especially when the demand isn't there

 

[Azure J]

Nintendo stock lower than at end of Gamecube life.

Bodied. Goddamn.

 

[ascii42]

You mean like how the original iPhone's price was dropped $200 on all models just 2 months after release?

Finished.

Yeah, except Apple sells stuff with a massive profit margin. They have loads of room to cut prices if they wanted to.

 

[Yawnier]

Nintendo stock lower than at end of Gamecube life.

So, Nintendo's stock went from $75 - $80 at it's peak to about $10 in a span of about 5-ish years?

Am I reading that right?

 

[sflufan]

So, Nintendo's stock went from $70 at it's peak to about $10 in a span of about 5-ish years?

Am I reading that right?

Yes, but we don't know if the stock had any splits which would lower the price accordingly while increasing the number of outstanding shares.

 

[TheGreyHulk]

Nintendo stock lower than at end of Gamecube life.

wowsers... looks like nintendo's money printing machines went offline. back to square one for big n

 

[sflufan]

A far better measure than stock price would be to see Nintendo's market capitalization during that period which is:

Stock price x shares oustanding = market capitalization

 

[ascii42]

Yes, but we don't know if the stock had any splits which would lower the price accordingly while increasing the number of outstanding shares.

Don't most stock price trackers account for that by retroactively lowering old share prices? If not, they should.

 

[jcm]

Yes, but we don't know if the stock had any splits which would lower the price accordingly while increasing the number of outstanding shares.

If it had split (it didn't) the chart would be adjusted.

 

[Projectjustice]

You mean like how the original iPhone's price was dropped $200 on all models just 2 months after release?

Finished.

Try harder, different market.

 

[Baconsammy]

I think it's fair to wish that the Wii U does die if you despise the approach Nintendo took with it. Ditto for the upcoming Microsoft Media Monstrosity, but I don't think it's realistic to start burying them as some folks are doing. They're not Sony. They have actual franchises that can save it. Not turn it into a huge success necessarily, but save it in a way that it looks like the Vita can not be saved.

 

[Saint Gregory]

It is amazing how quickly this thread climbed to the all-time size charts. Less than a day to number one? Damn!

Well there's a lot of failing to discuss this month unfortunately.

I think it's fair to wish that the Wii U does die if you despise the approach Nintendo took with it. Ditto for the upcoming Microsoft Media Monstrosity, but I don't think it's realistic to start burying them as some folks are doing. They're not Sony. They have actual franchises that can save it. Not turn it into a huge success necessarily, but save it in a way that it looks like the Vita can not be saved.

Nintendo is going to have to convince retailers not to bail on the console until those franchises come though. Shelf/warehouse space is expensive and they can't afford to have a million + Wii Us sitting around waiting for game "X" to save them.

I'm really shocked that Nintendo planned so poorly with this console. They used to be able to read the market like a book.

 

[Maxim726X]

So... There's a chance that Microsoft may be the only console maker left standing?

Sony's on the ropes as we all know, and Nintendo can't rely on astronomical success for a handheld anymore.

 

[JudgeN]

How so?

Aren't they losing money on each console sold already? I thought customers had to buy "some" games before it made a profit.

 

[jcm]

A far better measure than stock price would be to see Nintendo's market capitalization during that period which is:

Stock price x shares oustanding = market capitalization

Here it is since 2004. That's a lot of equity destroyed.

 

[Amir0x]

boy that does make things seem even bleaker

what a weird industry this would be if Sony went bust from all their shitty business decisions and Nintendo had to bow out of hardware development to only make software for Microsoft platforms or something

and the rest of us had to suffer Kinect Nintendo games for the rest of our days

 

[1-D_FTW]

Yes, but we don't know if the stock had any splits which would lower the price accordingly while increasing the number of outstanding shares.

Didn't they use a ton of their profits to buy back shares? If anything, it's probably higher than it should be (due to decreased supply). Of course, had they spent that money on actual production capacity, maybe it would have been higher that way too.

 

[Saint Gregory]

boy that does make things seem even bleaker

what a weird industry this would be if Sony went bust from all their shitty business decisions and Nintendo had to bow out of hardware development to only make software for Microsoft platforms or something

and the rest of us had to suffer Kinect Nintendo games for the rest of our days

In terms of bodies Nintendo is a small enough company to survive solely off of making handhelds for Japan if they were forced to shrink their scope out of the foreign home console market.

 

[Of All Trades]

Try harder, different market.

A market where Apple had far more options than Nintendo currently does. Unless you're expecting the WiiU to start selling more "just because" then without a drastic shift in strategy it's going to be heading into the Fall with a US installed base of, what, 1.5M?

 

[ASIS]

boy that does make things seem even bleaker

what a weird industry this would be if Sony went bust from all their shitty business decisions and Nintendo had to bow out of hardware development to only make software for Microsoft platforms or something

and the rest of us had to suffer Kinect Nintendo games for the rest of our days

If either Sony or Nintendo leave the hardware race, I may as well leave this hobby.

 

[Road]

Clearly the secret to getting mammoth-sized NPD threads is for the NPD to provide us with little to no data whatsoever and for us to speculate as to what it might be. We've cracked the code!

If we didn't know Wii U had such apocalyptic sales this thread would probably be 5 pages.

 

[Maxim726X]

If either Sony or Nintendo leave the hardware race, I may as well leave this hobby.

I don't see how Sony can save the company at this point, and things aren't looking up for Nintendo.

That is a plausible reality.

 

[Kazerei]

boy that does make things seem even bleaker

what a weird industry this would be if Sony went bust from all their shitty business decisions and Nintendo had to bow out of hardware development to only make software for Microsoft platforms or something

and the rest of us had to suffer Kinect Nintendo games for the rest of our days

 

[Saint Gregory]

We haven't gotten a comment of any kind from Nintendo about these sales have we? I would imagine that Reggie needed a change of underwear after seeing them... I know I would have if I were him.

 

[Tobor]

We haven't gotten a comment of any kind from Nintendo about these sales have we? I would imagine that Reggie needed a change of underwear after seeing them... I know I would have if I were him.

He's busy getting his résumé in order.

 

[1-D_FTW]

Jeez. Looking at that again, it's especially depressing to see a market cap of 12 billion when they have almost 10 billion in cash reserves. Do the math on that one.

 

[Of All Trades]

So... There's a chance that Microsoft may be the only console maker left standing?

I seriously doubt that there will be another console generation after this one, and am willing to bet that, much like how the current 360 user experience is very different than how it started, both the PS4 and Xbox Media thing will end their generations looking very different than how they launch.

I don't mean that in a negative way, either. Things will just be different.

 

[Eternia]

I had no idea the Vita even sold in the tens of thousands range...

That's much better than I thought! I see a faint glimmer of hope...

I could be mistaken but I think this past month was the worst in terms of total unit sales and weekly sales for the Vita thus far. Last August (4 weeks) was the previous low of under 40k actually October was ~35k so that would only be lowest weekly sales ever with similar total sales.

 

[SmokyDave]

If either Sony or Nintendo leave the hardware race, I may as well leave this hobby.

I could totally live with a Steam & iOS future.

 

[Tobor]

I could totally live with a Steam & iOS future.

Works for me.

 

[Kalnos]

If either Sony or Nintendo leave the hardware race, I may as well leave this hobby.

Remember how bad gaming was before the PlayStation existed? Oh wait, lol. I'm not quite old enough to make the same comment about the NES, but you get the idea.

 

[ASIS]

I could totally live with a Steam & iOS future.

Considering that I mainly play on home consoles. I couldn't. And I most certainly wouldn't enjoy a future industry where MS has a monopoly over that space.

 

[ascii42]

Remember how bad gaming was before the PlayStation existed? Oh wait, lol. I'm not quite old enough to make the same comment about the NES, but you get the idea.

Before the Playstation existed, we still had Sega. If the WiiU must fail for the Dreamcast 2 to rise, then that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.

 

[Tobor]

Considering that I mainly play on home consoles. I couldn't. And I most certainly wouldn't enjoy a future industry where MS has a monopoly over that space.

Don't worry, Steamboxes will be widely available in this new future.

 

[Yawnier]

If either Sony or Nintendo leave the hardware race, I may as well leave this hobby.

If by chance both of those companies stop making gaming hardware, there would be a chance that I would probably quit this hobby as well, or just play retro video games forever.

 

[michaelius]

I could totally live with a Steam & iOS future.

iOS? are you sure you are a gamer ?

 

[TheFightingFish]

In terms of bodies Nintendo is a small enough company to survive solely off of making handhelds for Japan if they were forced to shrink their scope out of the foreign home console market.

Honestly, I know that many GAFfers would disagree with me. But my personal enjoyment of Nintendo as a company would go up greatly if they just did portable hardware and software. On the whole I've enjoyed the GBA, DS and 3DS much more than the N64, GameCube and Wii. If Wii-U was a relative failure enough to not kill the company, but to put more focus and first part game development time on the 3DS I'd be more than fine with that.

 

[Inversive]

In a world of Microsoft only consoles the pc gamer is king.

 

[Mifune]

People forget that Microsoft doesn't make much money off gaming compared to their other ventures. If this bid for the living room fails, we're looking at a no console future, everyone.

 

[Ollie Pooch]

I could totally live with a Steam & iOS future.

Yep. If MS were the only player I'd be jumping straight out to Steam. Been considering it for a while for other reasons anyway.

 

[mercenar1e]

boy that does make things seem even bleaker

what a weird industry this would be if Sony went bust from all their shitty business decisions and Nintendo had to bow out of hardware development to only make software for Microsoft platforms or something

and the rest of us had to suffer Kinect Nintendo games for the rest of our days

Spoiler

i bet this will get a few people pissed

 

[1-D_FTW]

People forget that Microsoft doesn't make much money off gaming compared to their other ventures. If this bid for the living room fails, we're looking at a no console future, everyone.

It's been looking that way for a while. But I think even most skeptics still expected one more solid generation.

 

[UberTag]

As a huge pikmin fan, anyone seriously using it as a factor to say "pikmin3" will push wiiU sales are deluded to the extremes.

A niche wii up-port years late isn't going to do shit. Especially when the demand isn't there

Dude, don't rain on their parade. That's not cool.
Pikmin has Miiverse now. The community will blossom.

Just look what happened when Pikmin 2 was released.

AUGUST 2004

GameCube sales = 108,953 (27,238/wk)

SEPTEMBER 2004

Pikmin 2 was released on August 30, 2004 - sold 132,618 copies over the 5-week September NPD period

GameCube sales = 114,789 (22,958/wk)

Oh wait... hardware sales went down? That can't be right. Pikmin is a driver of hardware. It's beloved in Japan more than Star Fox.
Surely this must be a mistake of some kind. How can you hate on these little guys? Look how adorable they are.

What about Pikmin on the Wii? That spiked North American Wii hardware sales, right?

FEBRUARY 2009

Wii sales = 753,000 (188,250/wk)

MARCH 2009

Pikmin New Play Control! for the Wii was released on March 9, 2009 - and failed to crack the Top 20 individual SKU software sale list for the month?!?!?

Wii sales = 601,000 (120,200/wk)

Hardware sales went down again. I can't run these numbers for Pikmin 1 on GameCube because it was a launch title with an inflated attach rate due to being an essential buy for the new purple lunchbox hotness (

Spoiler

I loved my GameCube

) and Nintendo was already consolidating their hardware sales last June when Pikmin 2 came out so we can't accurately measure a spike in Wii hardware there.

How very puzzling! 4 Pikmin releases and no evidence of it being a hardware mover in North America. I'm sure this time it'll be different, though. Yep!

 

[Spirit Icana]

I'm I right by thinking that because of the Wii U's controller, it will be incredibly hard to Nintendo to cut costs as time goes on like your typical consoles?

Hmm, well they could do the EXTREME thing and redo the OS and eshop stuff, update all systems, and then... release a sku WITHOUT the gamepad. Re-release Nintendo Land with the gamepad bundled with that game (like Wii Fit) and just bundle the new sku with New Super Mario Bros. U and a Wii Remote and Nunchuk (or a new Wii Sports and a Wii remote update).

Maybe they could cut the price to $250 or $199 after that AND make money.

 

[Yopis]

Remember how bad gaming was before the PlayStation existed? Oh wait, lol. I'm not quite old enough to make the same comment about the NES, but you get the idea.

Coleco vision was awesome. No company makes or breaks gaming. Loving Vita right now. Hope it can carve a space out. If not things move on. Don't want an Ios only future but I go where the games I wanna play are.

 

[Haggis]

I am not sure Nintendo can drop the price too much because of the tablet. Well without taking massive losses. Plus their historical attach rate also needs to be applied to what price they can drop to in order to stay in the black over the course of this Gen.

They aren't in a good position right now.

 

[CadetMahoney]

These sales validate almost all of my hating.

There was a point where I was considering getting a wiiu for bayo2 but I fully expect bayo 2 to come out for other platforms now.

 

[timetokill]

There was a point where I was considering getting a wiiu for bayo2 but I fully expect bayo 2 to come out for other platforms now.

Yes I'm sure Nintendo will publish Bayo2 on other platforms to recoup costs