E3 2016

you can still get a bunch of free avatars and themes and access to drawn to death and kill strain beta here until june 28th
Livecast

they sent out one wave of codes today, i already have the betas for these games so first come first serve for PS4 obviously

No interest in Drawn to Death so here's another one for that if anyone wants it:

koljec_sl said:

They are still a toy/card company at heart and want to make something tangible that can be on the shelves and in peoples' hands (not just a game box, either).

Nintendo also likes giving stores something Nintendo to sell--Amiibo are as much about remaining on merchant radar as they are about anything else.

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All the physical stuff they've been printing money with they can do if they port games to other platforms and it would hit a bigger audience. When talking about hardware I'm talking about WiiU/NX and the DS. The DS even is fine, whatever, it beats phones/tablets in some markets yet (I'm dubious for how long, though) but even with Amiibos they're shooting themselves in the foot by essentially not drawing in the millions and millions of gamers and older Nintendo fans that just don't buy Nintendo consoles anymore.

Amzin_sl said:

Is there a source for them making more of their money on hardware? Because that makes no sense. They're the ONLY company of the 3 that typically make any money on hardware sales and considering the number of games per unit they sell I can't fathom how any profit margin on the hardware would add up to "the majority of their money"

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This is from 2014, so you'd need to look at their more recent financials, which they release every quarter. Also, this is before Amiibo's, which have been very successful venture for Nintendo - which also would count as "hardware/accessories".

A Deeper Analysis of Nintendot Drop Hardware

TLDR:

They make more revenue from their hardware.

Nintendo sells their hardware for more than the production price. (Wii U being an exception at launch, sold at a small loss due to gamepad). Furthermore, their software margins are extremely high because they don't have to pay royalties and don't have to share the price between developer & publisher.

If they get out of the hardware business, the latter reason would really hurt them - they'd have no choice but to downsize.

Man0warr_sl said:

This is from 2014, so you'd need to look at their more recent financials, which they release every quarter. Also, this is before Amiibo's, which have been very successful venture for Nintendo - which also would count as "hardware/accessories".

A Deeper Analysis of Nintendot Drop Hardware

TLDR:

They make more revenue from their hardware.

Nintendo sells their hardware for more than the production price. (Wii U being an exception at launch, sold at a small loss due to gamepad). Furthermore, their software margins are extremely high because they don't have to pay royalties and don't have to share the price between developer & publisher.

If they get out of the hardware business, the latter reason would really hurt them - they'd have no choice but to downsize.

Click to expand...

That article even mentions that they're taking a LOSS on the Wii U and only eventually started making profit on the handheld market. It just reinforces my point: They could make more profit, and arguably more revenue (hard to judge) by switching from solely their own hardware to the wider gaming world of mobile, Xbones/PS4s, and PCs. They wouldn't have to share software profit with other developers or publishers, because they do that themselves anyway. The only difference would be the cut they give up to the host hardware owner - MS, Sony, Steam, etc. but when you compare that to how many more units they could sell, it just seems impossible that it wouldn't be a net gain. Would they have to downsize? Their hardware side, sure, they'd have nothing to do anymore. Software would likely grow.

Hell they could have their own distribution platform on the PC a la Origin/Uplay and still not take a cut there and because of their recognition people would jump on it straight away.

Just raw revenue stream isn't the end-all be-all of business when your biggest chunk of revenue is actually either taking write-offs or barely making profit. If profit IS their main concern, they'd be nuts to stay in the hardware business much longer unless the NX is a 180 from their previous endeavors. This is one circumstance where a company going for profit may actually benefit the consumer since it would give access to quality games to more people.

Either way, it obviously wouldn't be for years since the NX is already deep in the trench of development. 3-4 more years of iffy profit off of a console and dwindling DS market share will argue the point more strongly than words ever could, if those trends continue.

Their biggest issue is market share and which consumer groups find their products appealing. One of the reasons Disney does so well is when we were young most of us were high on Mickey Mouse. Now most of our kids love it as well. This has been going on for decades.

Hooking sequential generations on Mario, Link etc are important. Otherwise no one is going to give a shit and all that brand power you once had is flushed down the toilet. Xbox / PS kids these days couldn't give two shits about Nintendo where as we older folks in our 30's and 40's have super fond memories of the brand. That is a huge failure on Nintendo's part and they need to fix it now or die a slow death.

Kedwyn_sl said:

Their biggest issue is market share and which consumer groups find their products appealing. One of the reasons Disney does so well is when we were young most of us were high on Mickey Mouse. Now most of our kids love it as well. This has been going on for decades.

Hooking sequential generations on Mario, Link etc are important. Otherwise no one is going to give a shit and all that brand power you once had is flushed down the toilet. Xbox / PS kids these days couldn't give two shits about Nintendo where as we older folks in our 30's and 40's have super fond memories of the brand. That is a huge failure on Nintendo's part and they need to fix it now or die a slow death.

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Agreed but that's what so frustrating about Nintendo. It's not like they can't fix this... I just can't tell if they're in denial or just don't care. There are moments I think they believe they can roll out a Smash Bro., Zelda, or Pokemon and make all the money they need to stay afloat. That's not going to work forever. If that's truly the case it will be a slow death. Their generational interest is slowly shrinking as we get further from the 80's. Sure they'll sell a billion box copies of their small collection of games but their catalogue is shrinking and eventually 2-3 games can't save their entire company. That's "if" that position is true. Surely, they're more intelligent than that and maybe it's just creative differences. They may not want to be the company that the culture wants them to become.