Nintendo has announced its financial results for the first quarter ending at the end of June, and things aren’t looking too rosy.
The company lost 10.3 billion yen – that’s $132m, or £85m in proper money. Though that’s actually an improvement on the same period last year, when it lost 37.7 billion yen. Tough times.
A year on from the official announcement, and no one’s any the wiser on the Wii U. Nintendo’s next console is a complete oddity in an otherwise predictable market, but is that necessarily a good thing? Probably not: Nintendo’s in danger of launching a huge flop, because nobody – including Nintendo themselves – knows what it is. Here’s why the Wii U is the most confusing thing in gaming… Read more
When Nintendo announced the Wii U back in June last year, the company remained tight-lipped about many of the finer details about the final spec and look of the hardware. The console unit that sits under your TV has always been subject to change, but now a leaked developer unit shows a pretty major overhaul to the controller. Is Nintendo seeing the error of its ways? Read more
If you’ve been sat in the Playstation camp for the best part of the last decade, you may have occasionally glanced over at Nintendo – with its raft of recognisable characters, and games that star the whole lot at once – with a touch of jealousy. That’s exactly why Sony is working on a clone of one of the Wii’s finest titles for the Playstation. Ready to get your battle on? Read more
Remember the Nintendo Wii U unveiling at E3 last year? Remember how confusing it was, and how loads of people thought that the tablet gaming controller was just an add-on for the existing Wii? Nintendo’s got itself into a worried state and may be on the verge of a complete rebranding. Read more
It’s become something of a ritual to give the Nintendo Wii a bit of kicking whenever it gets mentioned these days. I for one am guilty of laying into the old-school console, as it struggles to match up to the latest Xbox 360 and PS3 offerings, its casual tag meaning it’s faded badly in the last 18 months or so.
But as the Wii turns five, we should be looking back and celebrating its wider role in democratising gaming, not to mention adding revolutionary controls and making the entire arena a more fun, exciting place.
Satoru Iwata’s comments that the Nintendo Wii’s casual gaming status was a “misunderstanding”, is a little hard to take seriously. Nintendo’s main man used a recent conference call to claim that hardcore gamers were enamoured with the ageing hub and that there was an “over-emphasis” by outside sources on the success of titles like Wii Fit.
The fact is though, Nintendo must take the lion’s share of the blame for this. It’s policy of using mainstream figures outside the gaming industry to promote its products created huge sales, but has tarnished the brand in many core gamers’ eyes. And now next year’s Wii U is set to suffer. If Nintendo can’t shake off the casual tag, its next-gen console could be in for a rough ride.
