Industry
This guy says Nintendo stock GET (now)
Some analyst (I loves my analysts and their crazy “numbers”) says Nintendo is a market force to be reckoned with, and that its low cost and Wiimote capabilities give it incredible momentum for the next two years, at least. Nintendo trades at about 32 times forward earnings. While no analysts publish five-year growth expectations, earnings are expected to soar over the next two years, w...
IDC’s latest Wii prediction shows tide is turning
From IDC (very respectable analyst firm based in my backyard): IDC predicts that the Wii will outship and outsell the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in 2007 and 2008, as Nintendo’s rivals battle over the core consumer. IDC gaming program manager Billy Pidgeon said that Nintendo’s strategy to reach out to the non-core gaming market will pay off. “With the Wii, Nintendo is abdicating t...
Wild Wii game reviews (or, here we go again)
Those keen-eyed chaps at 4cr spotted yet another case of “wildy all over the place Wii game review syndrome” today, and in this case it’s for SSX Blur. Games Radar: “Controls are accurate and amazing” ’ 9 IGN: “One of the most intense and entertaining experiences on Wii” ’ 8.4 1up: “Motion-based control is disruptive to the flow” ’ 5.5 GamePro: “The controls are awful” ’ 5 OK...
Ubisoft posts 78% sales surge thanks to the Wii
Some savvy blogger over at Joystiq points out why digging deeper into a sales number can yield surprising results. The number in this case is the 78% surge Ubisoft saw in sales thanks to the Wii. “I’m betting, however, that Ubisoft can thank the sheer amount of junk games it threw at Wii owners for the spike in sales as other conservative publishers offered little to no games. And thou...
Online gaming update: Japan
Enterbrain has a snapshot of what online gaming is shaping up to be in Japan: CONSUMERS Do you use the networking feature of your console?– Yes: 89.4%– No: 10.6% On which platform are you using the network feature?– 21.6%: DS– 19.7%: Wii– 18.1%: PSP– 13.4%: PS2– 13.4%: PS3– 11.8%: Xbox 360– 2%: other Which service are you using the most?–...
Japanese government sells Nintendo stock
Oh Noes! The sky is falling! But really, it’s all ok, honest. The value of Nintendo shared has dropped over the weekend on news that the Japanese Government is selling its stake in the company.The Banks’ Shareholdings Purchase Corp. is a government organization set up in 2002 to safeguard stocks from precipitous offloading by major banks. Nintendo has sought the release of the shares i...
Nintendo apparently still producing GameCubes
The other day we reported that Perrin Kaplan claimed Nintendo has stopped production of the GameCube. Over at EuroGamer, they have word from a Nintendo UK rep who says that the GameCube is not out of production. If their unnamed source is to be believed, this is just another example of Perrin either being poorly informed by their corporation or she’s making up things as she goes along. So, d...
Wii might take 30% of U.S. homes
No no no, not 30% of all gamers, 30% of all HOMES, of which there are substantially more than the niche category of “gamer.” Merrill Lynch has predicted that 30% of U.S households will own a Wii by 2011. The analyst says the figure in Japan could be as high as 33%. The prediction comes in the aftermath of extraordinary results for Nintendo’s console, outselling all competitors in...
Sega shifts portable development to DS
From Chris Kohler at Game|Life: In an interview with Nikkei Shimbun, Sega managing director Hideki Okamura says the company is shifting its focus from PSP to Nintendo DS, pointing out that there is a title they will release this year that will “surprise absolutely everyone.” And remember that point I made about competing with Nintendo on first party titles and seeing it as a challenge ...
Who said anything about a Nintendo Drought?
Right about now is that special time when lazy columnists begin to write “do you think Nintendo can keep this up?” columns about the longevity of the Wii. The old Nintendo Drought chestnut is wheeled out and dusted off (it’s shaped like a GameCube), and everyone starts to get nervous that Nintendo is going to spontaneously cut off the game supply to its latest home console for no...
Bloomberg: Wii wins January
This is news, because it is indicative of a trend: Nintendo Co.’s Wii outsold Sony Corp.’s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 during January as consumers bought 436,000 of the video-game consoles. Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 was the second-most purchased machine with sales of 294,000, followed by PlayStation 3 with 244,000, Credit Suisse analyst Heath Terry said to...
Game|Life to Nintendo: start losing money
Chris Kohler over at Game|Life is one savvy blogger, and his latest post on Nintendo is spot-on. My latest big idea that I think Nintendo should consider is this: at some point, they should start throwing away cash into projects that might probably fail. No, stay with me on this one. At this point, Nintendo has proven that their strategy is viable. They’re expanding the market. DS did incred...