- Nintendo sieze 30,000 R4 and similar devices worldwide so far this year. What an embarrassing press release to put out. It says Nintendo fail. 30,000 seized is like spitting in the ocean to raise its level. The DS is rapidly losing viability as a platform to develop for and there is nothing Nintendo can do about it. Time for DS Mk2 with some anti piracy protection.
- Nintendo profits up 34%. Is it time to sell those shares yet? People have been predicting that the Wii bubble will burst soon for a long time. My thoughts are that online limitations due to lack of hard drive and no HDTV support will reduce its credibility as a console in this generation. However as a novelty toy it has a long life left. Nintendo could probably sell this for $100 (£50) and still make a profit.
- John Riccitiello puts his money where his mouth is with 40 Wii and DS games under development. Looking at the previous two news stories you have to wonder. But then he gets paid a fortune to run a multi billion pound global corporation and I write this blog.
- EA Q1 loss $95 million dollars. After the last story you could see where this was going. We are approaching the peak of this console cycle. EA have a bucket load of AAA franchises. The industry has grown enormously over the last 12 months. Big publishers like Ubisoft are making record profits And we get this. Maybe they are shipping pallets loaded with $100 bills to Robert Mugabe, it is the most logical explanation.
- Future Publishing revenue growth just 1%. Adjusting for inflation this means that they actually shrunk. When the game business is expanding and booming like crazy. Yes its the gradual death of paper media and Future’s previous blind long term strategy when it came to the interweb. They can turn it round but they need a radical approach.
- Sony Q1 Playstation turnover $2,166 million, up 16.8% on last year, with profits of $51 million. This is good news for the industry and reflects lower manufacturing costs, huge PSP sales and a partial recovery in the previously dire PS3 position.
- In Japan there has been a huge drop in Wii and DS sales. DS software sales have halved (no surprise with rampant piracy). Could this be the beginning of the bubble bursting? Year on year Wii sales are down nearly 50% and DS sales are down nearly 75%. Only Wii software sales are up and you would expect that on a larger user base that hasn’t yet been cannibalised by piracy. Expect new Nintendo machines soon.
- Microsoft to buy Take Two rumour. If this comes true there will be Harikiri in the Sony boardroom as GTA becomes a Microsoft exclusive.
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Wasn’t there always going to be a Wii/DS dip in sales in Japan as everyone already has one, and there are only so many colours in the rainbow to resell the DS to folk. All they have to do is release a smaller, brighter DS and things will pick up again. Also, now they can sit back and allow games sales to rack up thanks to Wii’s being in so many homes already.
As for the piracy killing the DS, it’s a shame that nintendo are just making an amazing amount of money, rather than a stupidly amazing amount of money on game sales. Poor them.
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I might be in the minority here with my opinion but I am quite pleased to see the dip in form at Future for a couple of reasons:
1) Monopoly of a market isn’t usually a good thing, and Future have a monopoly on the printed gaming media.
2) Due to the lead times on magazines it is so much harder to cater for their needs and yet still supply them with fresh information on a game. The obvious advantages of the internet here make life much easier for those working on products and trying to keep the public informed on progress. Sending review code to a magzine before you have finished the game just to be included in a magazine for your launch month is a huge burden.
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Item One – a story about how the DS is losing its viability as a platform due to piracy.
Item Two – a story about Nintendo’s profits being up by 34%.
Shurely shome mishtake?
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Lots of news about a new DS 😛
You think that the reporters were lazy and just put a few assumptions together like I did?
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DS software sales are down due to piracy? Wii sales WILL go down when piracy finally hits proper?
Seriously? There is absolutely nothing else at play here? Like, say, a seasonal dip in sales, recession, a glut of substandard shitty DS games, it’s all piracy? Wow.
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BC. DS sales down 75% and Wii sales down 50% isn’t a dip it’s a disaster.
JC Barnett. I don’t think seasonality has anything to do with it. If you read properly you will see that the figures are year on year. And I assume that even in Japan the seasons come at pretty much the same time each year.
Nintendo are reacting to this with a big anti piracy drive, see first story, and with a rumoured new DS later this year.