Associated Press wrote:

Nintendo profit to fall for first time in 6 years By YURI KAGEYAMA TOKYO Japanese video game and console maker Nintendo Co. reports earnings for the fiscal year ended March 31 on Thursday. The following is a summary of key developments and analyst opinion related to the period. OVERVIEW: Nintendo got a boost from healthy year-end holiday sales though annual profit is still expected to fall from the record result achieved the previous year. Price reductions on the Wii -- the world's top-selling home console -- to 20,000 yen from 25,000 yen in Japan and to $200 from $250 in the U.S. before the shopping season helped to boost sales volume. The maker behind Super Mario and Pokemon games hopes to continue to woo more fans with a handheld with 3D capabilities that doesn't require special glasses during the fiscal year through March 2011. BY THE NUMBERS: Nintendo is forecasting its first drop in profit in six years for the fiscal year through March 2010, at 230 billion yen ($2.4 billion) profit. Sales were weak earlier in the fiscal year while a strong yen and the price cuts also reduced profitability. Nintendo reaped a record 279.1 billion yen profit for the fiscal year ended March 2009. Nintendo does not break down quarterly numbers. The Kyoto-based manufacturer expected to sell 20 million Wii machines and 30 million DS machines in the 12 months through March 2010. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, on average, expect fiscal year profit of 229 billion yen ($2.4 billion). ANALYST TAKE: "We are expecting the results to be better than the company forecasts for the Wii," said Yuta Sakurai, analyst with Nomura Securities Co. in Tokyo. "Christmas shopping was strong." He is reserving judgment on how the 3D machine will fare until he sees more details. Nintendo is promising more details at the E3 show in Los Angeles in June. WHAT'S AHEAD: Hopes are high for 3D games but Nintendo faces intense competition from Microsoft Corp. with its Xbox 360 and Japanese rival Sony Corp., which makes PlayStation 3. Both are also bringing 3-D gaming to their home consoles although those games require special glasses. STOCK PERFORMANCE: Nintendo shares have been recovering over the last three months from an earlier decline.

What does Nintendo expect? They leaned hard on their tried and true money makers for all current systems when the Wii and DS first shipped. Zelda, Mario, Metroid, and Pokemon can generate interest for any platform, but in the end, if nothing new comes out then growth doesn't occur.

The gimmick of the Wiimote is gone and now Wii owners have a console that has dramatically inferior graphical capabilities compared to the 360/PS3. In addition Nintendo has done nothing to make a multiplayer environment that is both easy and useful. Lastly the Wii might have a virtual store, but there is no media content other than games. There is no streaming TV, Movies, Music, etc.

If you were a third party developer would you invest in the Wii? I know I wouldn't. I might consider the DS, but the same thing that happened to the console market is happening to the hand held market. Graphics wise, smart phones have surpassed the DS in raw power. It will take a few years for the games to mature, but it is a legitimate market that requires limited physical resources and licensing.

I believe that Nintendo can continue to do well without changing, but they can't continue to grow at the rate they are accustomed to without innovating. What I find the most odd about their current situation is that the Wii was truly innovative at the time that it came out. Why did that trend just die with its release?

SteelBallRun wrote:

Oh yeah, long time lurker and stuff. Hello to all.

Welcome!

Syd Lexia wrote:

username wrote: GPFontaine wrote: Lastly the Wii might have a virtual store, but there is no media content other than games. There is no streaming TV, Movies, Music, etc. actually, i read on 1up.com that netflix subscribers thru the wii format has reached a million. That could be a misleading number. I have NetFlix, and as a Netflix subscriber, I was able to get a free NetFlix Wii disc. I'm not entirely sure, but I think the disc might be flat-out free to anyone who requested it. So I have the Wii Netflix disc. Have I ever used it? No. So the question is this: do they have 1 million active Wii subscrivers, or one million discs shipped?

I agree Syd, I think that a lot of people who are Netflix subscribers and already own a wii would just ask for the disk since it was free. None the less, the mere fact that a disk is required further demonstrates that the Wii is a step behind.

In addition, it should be noted that the Wii can only produce a 480p image while Netflix offers upwards of 720p streams.

Syd Lexia wrote:

Doddsino wrote: hardly buy games for it because there's so few games to get. I own 126 Wii games. I have very few regrets.

If you had to guess, how would you say your purchases were spread out across the current life of the system?

Out of curiosity, do you play the games regularly or do they mostly sit on a shelf and earn points for being DVD cases with white bindings?