3DS Console Discussion

[RedShell]

Did anyone get their puzzle piece for Mario Tennis Open?

Yep.

Not a pink one though, unfortunately.

[canand]

Yeah I got a puzzle piece for Mario Tennis Open and cool Nintendo 3DS is geting updated Nintendo Zone here we come

[Dcubed]

Did anyone get a Fire Emblem puzzle piece? Or did we all just get a Mario Tennis one?

[canand]

Did anyone get a Fire Emblem puzzle piece? Or did we all just get a Mario Tennis one?

 

Fire Emblem puzzle piece is just for Japan and Japan got Mario Tennis one aswell

[Serebii]

According to Nintendo's financial briefing, the 3DS broke 17,000,000, making their original target of 16,000,000 completely broken (considering they dropped it in January to 14,000,000)

 

Their operating loss was less than people were expecting too

[Hero-of-Time]

 

Look at those numbers. Some of them are staggering! LOL at the Wii being a fad.

[Serebii]

And LOL at 3DS bombing :p

[Dcubed]

Hey Serebii, you missed the most important bit! Seems that Nintendo are going to be offering full retail 3DS games on the eShop by the end of this year (and very likely within just a scant few months, going by the fact that they expect their 3DS software sales to roughly double!)

 

"9. Forecasted sales units of Nintendo 3DS software and Wii U software contained in Wii software include the quantity of the packaged software by means of digital distribution."

 

My guess is that there will be a surprise release of retail games announced during the E3 conference (with games made available right after the announcement) and that the NSMB2 listing wasn't a typo, it will be made available on the eShop on launch day (or even a little sooner, to encourage purchase via DD)

 

Of course the big question for me here is whether or not this will also include retail versions of DS games (back catalogue games as well as surprise localisations and Pokemon B&W2/Pokemon X Nobunaga's Ambition)

Edited April 26, 2012 by Dcubed

[Serebii]

Osnap, I did miss that

[James McGeachie]

Their operating loss was less than people were expecting too

 

How the fuck can Nintendo be turning losses? I really don't get that.

 

I mean seriously, their core franchises sell such an insane amount and shift hardware by themselves.

 

Where do all their costs come from? Are they just inefficient as all hell or something in reducing their unit costs? Or do they have tons of staff being paid to sit on their ass and do nothing?

 

I guess it could be because they have such a large number of first-party titles compared to their competitors?

[Dcubed]

How the fuck can Nintendo be turning losses? I really don't get that.

 

I mean seriously, their core franchises sell such an insane amount and shift hardware by themselves.

 

Where do all their costs come from? Are they just inefficient as all hell or something in reducing their unit costs? Or do they have tons of staff being paid to sit on their ass and do nothing?

 

I guess it could be because they have such a large number of first-party titles compared to their competitors?

 

Easy. Their Wii and DS hardware and software sales have collapsed and they make substantial losses on 3DS hardware sales because they sell them below cost (they will finally be breaking even on hardware come August-September, which is also when a certain big name game is getting released for it...)

 

Combine that with a rising Yen (meaning that they make less money from US and EU sales) as well as enormous Wii U R&D costs and voila!

 

This is a transitional year for them. They'll be fine once they get the 3DS costs down and the Wii U out of the door.

 

Edit: Another little tidbit I missed. Brain Training 3DS is coming out in Japan in "summer" (so it's probably coming out in August)

 

Brain Training 1 & 2 took over a year after their respective JPN releases to come out in the west, but given the series' popularity now, I reckon they'll fast track its US/EU localisation to September/October.

Edited April 26, 2012 by Dcubed

[dazzybee]

How the fuck can Nintendo be turning losses? I really don't get that.

 

I mean seriously, their core franchises sell such an insane amount and shift hardware by themselves.

 

Where do all their costs come from? Are they just inefficient as all hell or something in reducing their unit costs? Or do they have tons of staff being paid to sit on their ass and do nothing?

 

I guess it could be because they have such a large number of first-party titles compared to their competitors?

 

Huge research, development and production costs for the wii u primarily, that plus the costs of spunking up the 3DS infrastcruture etc. New consoles costs lots of money!

[Serebii]

Nintendo is expecting to start turning a profit on the 3DS in September. It seems their success in selling the 3DS is part of the reason they're turning a loss

[D_prOdigy]

According to Nintendo's financial briefing, the 3DS broke 17,000,000, making their original target of 16,000,000 completely broken (considering they dropped it in January to 14,000,000)

 

Their operating loss was less than people were expecting too

 

The forecast was for the FY, not LTD, so the 3DS shipment fell short of the revised (and obviously original) target.

 

You have to knock about 3.7m off the LTD because that's what was sold in the launch quarter.

 

How the fuck can Nintendo be turning losses? I really don't get that.

 

Yen.

 

Huge research, development and production costs for the wii u primarily, that plus the costs of spunking up the 3DS infrastcruture etc. New consoles costs lots of money!

 

I think the importance of R&D costs is incredibly over-stated at least once a generation simply because Nintendo is always doing R&D. It remains at a constant, rather than simply 'ramping up' when a new generation is coming up.

[dazzybee]

No chance, of course it will be ramp up as development progresses, shipping dev kits out, changing, shipping more out, actually production costs getting ready for launch etc.

[James McGeachie]

I forgot that they were selling the 3DS at a loss. It's easy to forget considering that the only aspect of the hardware you'd naturally expect to be pricey is the screen.

 

Almost surprising that they aren't lowering production, creating an artificial shortage and shifting more production into later quarters when it's more profitable (e.g. massive Christmas push). I guess though that probably isn't feasible, it's not like they planned to sell it under cost-price.

 

I don't usually think too much about the Yen issue because that effects absolutely every Japanese country with international business so it's not Nintendo specific. If it's such a big issue at the moment with companies reliant on exports, then I guess Nintendo are perhaps one of the less severe hit companies?

 

One thing I'm not buying is "Huge R&D costs for Wii U". Those were obviously sunk years ago. I'm not aware though if Japanese standards would allow them to have written that off against their profits in earlier periods or not or if they would've capitalised it and written it off more slowly. Either way, it's not like it all suddenly hit in the last financial year. Also, I'm not buying that they're "massive" unless the tablet technology is revolutionary. At least not relatively massive compared to what Microsoft and Sony have probably been investing.

 

I'll mainly take it that the 3DS's cost is the main issue relating to this loss and I guess its low sales in the early parts of the financial year. I don't think international sales have picked up quite as much as they have in Japan yet either, have they?

[Serebii]

I forgot that they were selling the 3DS at a loss. It's easy to forget considering that the only aspect of the hardware you'd naturally expect to be pricey is the screen.

 

Almost surprising that they aren't lowering production, creating an artificial shortage and shifting more production into later quarters when it's more profitable (e.g. massive Christmas push). I guess though that probably isn't feasible, it's not like they planned to sell it under cost-price.

 

I don't usually think too much about the Yen issue because that effects absolutely every Japanese country with international business so it's not Nintendo specific. If it's such a big issue at the moment with companies reliant on exports, then I guess Nintendo are perhaps one of the less severe hit companies?

 

One thing I'm not buying is "Huge R&D costs for Wii U". Those were obviously sunk years ago. I'm not aware though if Japanese standards would allow them to have written that off against their profits in earlier periods or not or if they would've capitalised it and written it off more slowly. Either way, it's not like it all suddenly hit in the last financial year. Also, I'm not buying that they're "massive" unless the tablet technology is revolutionary. At least not relatively massive compared to what Microsoft and Sony have probably been investing.

 

I'll mainly take it that the 3DS's cost is the main issue relating to this loss and I guess its low sales in the early parts of the financial year. I don't think international sales have picked up quite as much as they have in Japan yet either, have they?

Near as I can tell, the 3DS still outsells all the others in most regions the majority of the time, but not by as large a margin

[-Dem0-]

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2012/04/mega_man_legends_3_campaign_hits_100000_strong

 

Loving the support for this.

 

The campaign isn't over, though. Now the group needs to turn its button-clicks into action, inviting members to send postcards to Capcom by the month's end. These postcards carry a simple message — "please put Mega Man Legends 3: Prototype Version on the eShop. I would purchase it immediately." The group says that until the Prototype version hits the eShop, it hasn't succeeded.

[Dcubed]

AWW YYYEEEAAAHHHH!! I was spot on about the eShop retail titles and NSMB2! (To be fair, it was pretty obvious)

 

BTW: Here's the full briefing http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/library/events/120427/index.html

 

It confirms that full retail games (starting with NSMB2 and including Animal Crossing & Demon Training) will be made available on the eShop. Also (and here's the kicker!), Nintendo will releasing download codes at retail BUUT unlike Sony and MS' ones, Nintendo will be allowing open pricing, meaning that retailers can charge whatever they want for them, just like a retail game!

 

RRP will be the same for the retail and DD versions of all 3DS & Wii U download games, but retailers set the price for all DD games sold in their stores (so yes, that does mean that you can pick up the DD version of NSMB2 on the cheap in stores)

 

Wii U will have full retail games available via DD on day 1.

 

Sadly no mention of a western MH3G release...

Edited April 27, 2012 by Dcubed

[dZION]

they'd lose less if they made those prepaid eshop cards more easily available, not everyone has a credit card ...

[Dcubed]

Oh shit! I just realised that as someone who plans to import a US Wii U, this is the best news ever!

 

If all or most games are going to be made available via DD at retail, I would be able to buy games and not have to wait weeks for them to ship over from the US to UK!!!! YYYEEESSSS!!!! Release dates would actually mean a release date for me!

[Serebii]

Oh shit! I just realised that as someone who plans to import a US Wii U, this is the best news ever!

 

If all or most games are going to be made available via DD at retail, I would be able to buy games and not have to wait weeks for them to ship over from the US to UK!!!! YYYEEESSSS!!!! Release dates would actually mean a release date for me!

Let's hope they don't region lock out the stores by IP

[Dcubed]

Let's hope they don't region lock out the stores by IP

 

Nah I doubt they'd do that. They'll probably just have a hardware region lock like before and you can only create an account in your specific region.

 

They've been good in regards to not using IP blocking and they know that lots of people like to import (where they actually make quite a bit of money, especially given the high Yen price for JPN imports!) and secretly they actually sort of encourage it anyway (Nintendo World in New York is full of import stuffs, they sell "import" titles on the VC, NOE love to highlight regional exclusive stuff and their repair centres actually accept foreign consoles - they even offered to import a US Wii for me when I sent my one in for repair!)

[Serebii]

Nah I doubt they'd do that. They'll probably just have a hardware region lock like before and you can only create an account in your specific region.

 

They've been good in regards to not using IP blocking and they know that lots of people like to import (where they actually make quite a bit of money, especially given the high Yen price for JPN imports!) and secretly they actually sort of encourage it anyway (Nintendo World in New York is full of import stuffs, they sell "import" titles on the VC, NOE love to highlight regional exclusive stuff and their repair centres actually accept foreign consoles - they even offered to import a US Wii for me when I sent my one in for repair!)

Not too bad then. It'll actually be useful to me when I get my Japanese one if they make any of the Pokémon games in the future downloadable. Won't have to get stressed with delivery delays like I always do

[Dcubed]

Not too bad then. It'll actually be useful to me when I get my Japanese one if they make any of the Pokémon games in the future downloadable. Won't have to get stressed with delivery delays like I always do

 

I'm still bitter over Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Wiiware... It's lack of a western release is just baffling!