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Posted

Also, you include some download titles and not others, such as Party Find The Mistake..

 

So, ...it has come to this.

This point in history where we consider this an actual game that could be used to flesh out the WiiU line-up.

 

Peter-Griffin-Puts-on-Graduate-Hat.gif

Posted
So, ...it has come to this.

This point in history where we consider this an actual game that could be used to flesh out the WiiU line-up.

 

Peter-Griffin-Puts-on-Graduate-Hat.gif

I was being pedantic.

Posted

NPD Sales Results for December 2013

 

138991395288zqojr.jpg

 

3DS Lego Marvel Super Heroes was 3rd highest selling SKU.

 

Hardware:

 

Xbox One: 908K [best selling next-gen console]

Xbox 360: 643K [best selling current-gen console]

 

Congrats to MS. XB1 is $500 and its shifting major major units in the US

Posted

It's shifting units but it didn't really see an improvement from November. Interesting sales, but I'm not sure what to think of it given that many stores had a surplus of XBO's compared to no PS4's.

 

Not that great for Wii U despite a lot of cheap bundles and of course Mario. Exact figures aren't known but it's likely to be around 500-600k.

Posted
It's shifting units but it didn't really see an improvement from November. Interesting sales, but I'm not sure what to think of it given that many stores had a surplus of XBO's compared to no PS4's.

 

Not that great for Wii U despite a lot of cheap bundles and of course Mario. Exact figures aren't known but it's likely to be around 500-600k.

 

But still its $500. To me MS should be well pleased considering the PR nightmare and price of the console.

 

Also the 360 is just immense. Great numbers again for that console and it still has plenty life left in it.

 

Gran Turismo 6 bombed.

Posted (edited)
"Hardware sales of the Wii U were also positive with December 2013 marking its highest month for unit sales month so far," NPD analyst Liam Callahan noted.

 

Wii U sold somewhere between 460K and 643K for December. I wouldn't say it's by no means a disaster but it's not Earth shattering either. Might get a more concrete number as the day goes on.

 

Aquamarine, on NeoGAF says that Wii U December sales are about 481,000.

 

FE: Awakening is the first title in the series to cross the million mark.

 

More LTD:

 

Sonic Lost World - 82k

Wonderful 101 - 49k

Pikmin 3 - 210k

Game & Wario - 36k

Monster Hunter 3 U - 93k

LEGO City Undercover - 242k

 

Rayman Legends

WiiU - 88k

360 - 42k

PS3 - 30k

 

Ubisoft must be regretting that 6 month wait. It beat the PS3 and 360 versions combined. Had Ubisoft released the game as an exclusive and back when it was originally intended I'd wager that number would be higher than 88k.

 

Resident Evil Revelations

360 - 55k

PS3 - 53k

WiiU - 13k

 

Not good but I'd put some of this down to Wii U owners being 3DS owners and already having the game.

 

More sales data

 

US hardware numbers for Dec:

 

3DS: 908K+

Xbox One: 908K

PS4: ????

Xbox 360: 643K

Wii U: 481K

PS3: 299K

PSV: <95k

 

Again Wii U is doing alright but nothing spectacular.

 

Anybody know CPR for the Vita. Seeing those Vita sales reminded me of this.

 

 

US Software (LTD)

 

Wii

Just Dance 2014 >800K

 

Wii U

Lego City Undercover - 242K

Pikmin 3 - 210K

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - 93K

Rayman Legends - 88K

Sonic: Lost World - 82K

The Wonderful 101 - 49K

Game & Wario - 36K

Resident Evil: Revelations - 16K

 

3DS

Pokemon X - 1.63M

Pokemon Y - 1.54M

Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon >1M

Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 910K

Mario & Luigi: Dream Team - 472K

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3DS - 386K

Fire Emblem: Awakening - 370K

LEGO City 3DS - 365K

Mario Party: Island Tour - 252k

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - 224K

Sonic Lost Worlds 3DS - 97k

Shin Megami Tensei IV - 96K

Project X Zone - 87K

Rune Factory 4 - 47k

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers - 36K

Etrian Odyssey 4 - 36K

Brain Age - 26K

 

PS3

The Last of Us - 1473K

Call of Duty: Ghosts <800K

God of War: Ascension - 783K

Kingdom Hearts 1.5HD - 438K

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - 329K

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time - 208K

Beyond: Two Souls - 202K

Gran Turismo 6 <180K

Tales of Xillia - 156K

Resident Evil: Revelations - 53K

Rayman Legends - 30K

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F - 16K

 

PS4

Call of Duty: Ghosts >800K

Battlefield 4 - between 550K and 600K

Assassin's Creed 4 - between 500K and 550K

NBA 2K14 - between 400K and 450K

Killzone Shadowfall - between 400K and 450K

Madden NFL 25 - between 350K and 400K

Need for Speed - between 250K and 300K

FIFA 14 - between 200K and 250K

Knack - between 150K and 200K

Lego Marvel Superheroes - between

 

PSV

Killzone: Mercenaries - 102K

Soul Sacrifice - 72K

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time - 67k

Tearaway -50K

Rayman Legends - 20k

 

Xbox 360

Minecraft - 1862K

Gears of War: Judgement - 764K

Resident Evil: Revelations - 55K

Rayman Legends - 42K

 

Xbox One

Call of Duty: Ghosts - between 800K and 900K

Battlefield 4 - between 550K and 650K

Dead Rising 3 - 526K

Forze Motorsport 5 - 457K

Ryse - 431K

Madden NFL 25 - between 350K and 400K

Assassin's Creed 4 - between 350K and 400K

NBA 2K14 - between 200K and 350K

FIFA 14 - between 150K and 200K

Need for Speed - between 100K and 150K

Lego Marvel Superheroes - between 100K and 150K

Just Dance 2014 - between 100K and 150K

 

EtHEyh9.jpg

Edited by Wii
Automerged Doublepost
Posted (edited)
It seems that the Wii U didn't do as well as Nintendo would have liked over Christmas, as their profit expectations for the fiscal year have been cut and they are now expecting to sell 2.8 million units: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-17/nintendo-forecasts-net-loss-on-stagnating-sales-of-wii-u-games.html

 

Just came here to post that news. This is very serious. Heads are going to roll I feel this time. I like Iwata, let Reggie take the blame, I can't stand him anymore. Another loss, it won't be accepted this time especially after the speeches made last time. Shareholders are going to demand action. It's been mistake after mistake and the book has to stop somewhere.

Edited by Wii
Posted
It seems that the Wii U didn't do as well as Nintendo would have liked over Christmas, as their profit expectations for the fiscal year have been cut and they are now expecting to sell 2.8 million units: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-17/nintendo-forecasts-net-loss-on-stagnating-sales-of-wii-u-games.html

 

Well they had to cut it anyway. There was no way in hell they were meeting their target. Now, their target is far more realistic and they may actually hit it.

 

Iwata needs to go. Another loss forcasted. Any CEO worth there salt would resign.

Turnarounds don't happen overnight. Getting rid of the CEO would do nothing but put the company into turmoil. Will it suddenly make sales go up? No.

 

Nintendo had a massive shakeup in the execs this year. The effects of which will be shown in the latter half of this year and beyond. Give that a chance before you call for the head of the one CEO who doesn't want to financially buttrape you, and who actually cares about gaming.

Posted
Well they had to cut it anyway. There was no way in hell they were meeting their target. Now, their target is far more realistic and they may actually hit it.

 

Which wouldnt really change anything. Changing the forecast to a really low number is nothing to celebrate if that target is then met.

 

The 3DS is worrying. The market has changed so much that really dont know where they go from here. The have released big hitting games in 2013, dropped the 2DS and still will miss the forecast by a huge margin.

 

Interesting tibit from the NPD

 

Nintendo sold -11.3% software ($ Revenue) this December compared to last December.

 

I'm surprised by that. Mario 3D World was released and the 3DS had all its games and still software sales were down on last December? I keep saying it but Nintendo reduce the price of 3DS software already!!!

 

In all of 2013:

 

Nintendo 1st party: -4.7% ($ revenue) compared to 2012

 

Cant see 2014 being any better considering what came out in 2013.

 

Nintendo had a massive shakeup in the execs this year. The effects of which will be shown in the latter half of this year and beyond. Give that a chance before you call for the head of the one CEO who doesn't want to financially buttrape you, and who actually cares about gaming.

 

I care about Nintendo and under his ship the company is on a downward spiral. He may care about gaming but his not doing a good job as CEO.

Posted
Well they had to cut it anyway. There was no way in hell they were meeting their target. Now, their target is far more realistic and they may actually hit it.

 

I kind of agree that its good they've now set something more realistic, but the realistic target is still somewhat of a worry in itself.

Posted
We would like to explain the modifications of the full-year financial and dividend forecasts announced today.

 

We revised our full-year consolidated financial forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014 that we announced at the beginning of the fiscal year by estimating new net sales of 590 billion yen against the initially projected net sales of 920 billion yen, new operating loss of 35 billion yen against the initially projected operating profit of 100 billion yen, new ordinary income of five billion yen against the initially projected ordinary income of 90 billion yen, and new net loss of 25 billion yen against the initially projected net income of 55 billion yen. Foreign currency assumptions for the end of the fiscal year have been revised from 90 yen to 100 yen per U.S. dollar and from 120 yen to 140 yen per euro.

 

Revised consolidated unit sales projections are, as outlined in “Notice of Full-Year Financial Forecast and Dividend Forecast Modifications,” 13.5 million units of the Nintendo 3DS hardware and 66.0 million units of the Nintendo 3DS software, 1.2 million units of the Wii hardware and 26.0 million units of the Wii software, and 2.8 million units of the Wii U hardware and 19.0 million units of the Wii U software. There are no modifications to our initial projections for the Nintendo DS hardware and software.

 

As for the estimated annual dividend, if the actual consolidated financial results are in line with our modified financial forecasts, there will be no annual dividend per share. However, on the basis of our dividends paid in the last two years, we have set a minimum of 100 yen for the year-end and annual dividend per share for this fiscal year.

 

As year-end sales constitute an extremely high proportion of the annual sales volume in the video game industry and the annual financial performance of a video game company rests heavily on its performance in the year-end sales season, we put in place various promotional activities in order to promote sales and expand our audience in the year-end sales season of the previous calendar year. However, it is now expected that our sales will fail to meet our previous forecast by a large margin.

 

Giving a detailed explanation on our sales performance in and leading up to the year-end sales season by platform, Nintendo 3DS continued to show strong sales in the Japanese market. The unit sales for Nintendo 3DS in the previous calendar year amounted to approximately 4.9 million units, falling short of our aim of five million units by a small margin. However, as I explained before, given that every gaming device from the year 2000 onwards apart from Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS did not reach sales of four million units even in their peak years, we can say that the sales figure for Nintendo 3DS in the last calendar year was indeed very high. However, outside Japan, while its market share increased as we continued to release compelling titles throughout the year, Nintendo 3DS did not reach our sales targets in the overseas markets, and we were ultimately unable to achieve our goal of providing a massive sales boost to Nintendo 3DS in the year-end sales season. Using the U.S. market as an example, Nintendo 3DS became the top-selling platform in the last calendar year, according to NPD, an independent market research company, with its cumulative sales exceeding 11.5 million units; however, the estimated annual sales of the Nintendo 3DS hardware remain significantly lower than our initial forecast at the beginning of the fiscal year. In Europe, while the individual markets showed different results, France was the only market in which we experienced relatively strong sales, and we failed to attain our initial sales levels by a large margin in other countries.

 

Wii U sales, on the other hand, showed some progress in the year-end sales season as we released various compelling titles from the summer onwards, launched hardware bundles at affordable price points and also performed a markdown of the hardware in the U.S. and European markets; however, they fell short of our targeted recovery by a large margin. In particular, sales in the U.S. and European markets in which we entered the year-end sales season with a hardware markdown were significantly lower than our original forecasts, with both hardware and software sales experiencing a huge gap from their targets. In addition, we did not assume at the beginning of the fiscal year that we would perform a markdown for the Wii U hardware in the U.S. and European markets. This was also one of the reasons for lower sales and profit estimates.

 

We therefore modified our unit sales estimates in accordance with our performance in the year-end sales season and after the turn of the year, and the drop in software sales had the largest negative effect on our profit forecasts.

 

Also, yen appreciation against the U.S. dollar and euro, which on one hand affects dollar-based and euro-based sales positively, also increases costs incurred in foreign currencies when they are converted to Japanese yen. While the yen remained very strong for a sustained period of time, Nintendo made a concerted effort to pay more of its manufacturing costs in U.S. dollars in order to minimize its impact. However, as the era of the exceedingly strong yen concluded, our domestic business, which had been progressing at a relatively strong pace, has seen an increase in manufacturing costs, while our overseas business, which is yet to reach its full potential, has not fully benefited from the weaker yen yet. In terms of our profitability in the current fiscal year, therefore, we were unable to sufficiently take advantage of the weaker yen.

 

As for advertising expenses, and research and development expense forecasts, we made revisions to increase them by eight billion yen and 15 billion yen respectively from their forecasts made at the beginning of this fiscal year. We expect advertising expenses to increase due to the effect of the expenses incurred in foreign currencies to be converted into Japanese yen by using weaker yen rates. The estimated increase of research and development expenses is based on reflecting our ongoing enhancement of the development structure, and new research and development activities. These increases contributed to lowered estimated profit forecasts.

 

We expect that we will post ordinary income despite the operating loss situation. This is because we now assume that the yen will be weaker than our original assumptions at the beginning of the fiscal year, and re-evaluation of assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies owned by Nintendo Co., Ltd. at the end of the fiscal year as well as foreign exchange gains at the time of cash receipts and conversions of foreign funds into yen, among other factors, are expected to exceed the projected operating loss.

 

On the other hand, we expect to post a net loss despite expecting ordinary income mainly because we need to reverse deferred tax assets in relation to the losses carried over from the previous fiscal years mainly in the United States, as we can no longer expect our financial performance to recover in the current fiscal year.

 

We will provide more information on our short-term as well as mid-term prospects at the Corporate Management Policy Briefing to be held on January 30, 2014, which will take place in Tokyo a day after we announce our financial results for the third quarter.

 

These are all of the explanations about modifications of our full-year financial and dividend forecasts.

Press release

Posted (edited)
Press release

 

Really not sure how they can get the 3DS sales up in the West to where they want them to be.

 

Have to add the Vita number is horrific. To not even do 100k in December is awful. As I thought remote play just like off tv play appeals to a very small amount of people. People want to play console games on big tv's which are readily available in households these days.

Edited by liger05
Posted

Ouch at some of those numbers.

 

The Vita numbers are simply horrendous, especially when you consider it was the Christmas season.

 

The Wii U numbers are actually higher than I thought they would be, but given the lack of software to follow up in the new year, I imagine they will rapidly fall back to under 100k.

 

How in the hell is the 360 still doing those numbers? Crazy.

 

Nintendo had a massive shakeup in the execs this year. The effects of which will be shown in the latter half of this year and beyond. Give that a chance before you call for the head of the one CEO who doesn't want to financially buttrape you, and who actually cares about gaming.

 

As I said in the other topic when this point was raised, if these new execs have the same line of thought as the others then they won't be any better off. They need someone from the outside to come in and offer some fresh perspective.

Posted
Ouch at some of those numbers.

 

The Vita numbers are simply horrendous, especially when you consider it was the Christmas season.

 

The Wii U numbers are actually higher than I thought they would be, but given the lack of software to follow up in the new year, I imagine they will rapidly fall back to under 100k.

 

How in the hell is the 360 still doing those numbers? Crazy.

 

 

 

As I said in the other topic when this point was raised, if these new execs have the same line of thought as the others then they won't be any better off. They need someone from the outside to come in and offer some fresh perspective.

 

360 still has Titanfall as well. The brand xbox really became synamous with console gaming in the US.

Posted

As I said in the other topic when this point was raised, if these new execs have the same line of thought as the others then they won't be any better off. They need someone from the outside to come in and offer some fresh perspective.

 

At least give them a chance before being dismissive.

Posted
At least give them a chance before being dismissive.

 

Given that we've seen how Nintendo operate ( their own bubble ) it's pretty hard to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's also going to take a miracle to turn the Wii U ship around.

 

Here's a fantastic post from Gaf. Some of the points I don't agree with ( still think Mario Kart is due for Spring ) but it paints a very grim picture.

 

Originally Posted by tehrik-e-insaaf

Horrible numbers. Simply horrible. This misses everyone's most pessimistic expectations for operating income expectations by $400M+ USD and baseline estimates by over $650M+ USD. No one seriously thought they were going to hit $1 B USD in operating profits. Most people were seeing Nintendo hitting 30% of the target as a baseline. That they are expecting a loss for the year of $350M USD is mind-boggling.

 

Only four things can explain these losses IMHO:

 

1. Nintendo's gross margins on software must have shrunk dramatically. Meaning that they are barely making any money on their own software much less third party software which has all dramatically dried up on both of their platforms globally. This bodes very badly for Nintendo in general - even if they were able to go third-party and hypothetically sell 2-3X the number of games (which I very much doubt) - what this shows is that Nintendo has lost its pricing power at retail - people aren't ready and willing to pay the Nintendo premium.

 

2. Nintendo bled money at retail trying to push hardware - far more than anyone expected - they must be eating close to a $100+ loss per Wii U sold right now or more - not just because of manufacturing cost - but because they are literally having to compensate retailers to provide them with shelf space and having to eat the price drop at the same time. This is horrible - because even if they take that much of a loss - the low gross margins on their own first-party games isn't sufficient to help them break even.

 

3. Nintendo isn't going to get Mario Kart or Smash out by early April - otherwise they would have been able to book orders under the current fiscal year. It looks like both games are going to be delayed well into the summer or into the Fall now. I am almost 100% positive that if it were even possible to get the games out by April or May - Nintendo would have done everything in their power to do so. It looks like Nintendo still hasn't effectively transitioned to HD development - not because of capability - but because they want to preserve gross margin based on their lower expected revenue numbers - and it's compromising their ability to get projects out the door on-time.

 

4. Nintendo is playing shell games with their accounting - booking contractual payments to Intelligent Systems and their other closely related entities as operating losses for tax purposes but which are effectively asset purchases - it means that they are dramatically restructuring their teams and it's going to be far more expensive than we thought.

 

If these estimates hold up - Nintendo will have generated a $1 B+ operating loss over the past three years. Here's the kicker though: Nintendo is still sitting on over $1 B+ in inventory that they haven't impaired yet (the IR report makes no mention of it). There is a good chance that over 80% of that is Wii U hardware which means that it's going to continue to be a drag on earnings over the next twelve months.

 

In any case, I don't foresee any major changes for Q3 happening. Nintendo is still going to engage in a buyback of 5% - which is going to drain their cash by another $1 B USD.

 

That means in three years Nintendo's war chest will have been depleted close to $2.5 billion USD from inventory impairment, operating losses, and share repurchases. Another $500M USD is going to be gone for asset / real estate purchases and capital investments. Their next hardware projects are going to require about ~$1.5 B USD in capital reserves at a minimum that are going to be tied up in the next two years as they wind down their existing platforms, and I don't see third-party licensing revenue coming back in a big way to offset declining gross margins on their first-party software.

 

Basically that means Nintendo could burn through ~$4 B in cash throughout this entire cycle and in anticipation of the next, with a very high cost structure intact. Like Sony, they will have effectively wiped out cumulative years of profit.

 

If we assume that Nintendo keeps building up human resources this coming year to meet their hiring targets, they are probably going to break-even in terms of operating profit for the next fiscal year or make a slight profit - but I'm even second guessing my own ability to understand Nintendo's gross margins now - someone at NOA or NOE is effectively writing giant checks to retailers to keep the channel alive - and that's really not good at all - Apple was in this same position in the late 90s and had to create their own retail stores to stop bleeding money to major retailers. Nintendo isn't going to have the investor support to launch a giant retail project in the US and EU, particularly when they no longer have proven pricing power which would be the primary argument to go that route.

 

Difficult time to be a Nintendo shareholder.

Posted
Woah, I didn't realise how much of their warchest they've burned through. It always sounded like a lot of money but in this business it goes quick.

 

Yeah, this is that rainy day that they were saving it for...

 

Anywho, the NPD result for Wii U was better than I had expected (don't get me wrong, it's still crap - but an enormous improvement: One of the largest November-December bumps in recent history actually), so that's somewhat comforting at least...

 

The forecast actually looks (depressingly) realistic now. The 3DS' western performance is very disappointing though; that's one hell of a forecasted dive! :o

 

They're in a bad state - especially when it comes to their position with retail...

 

Not sure what they can even do...

Posted

From Gaf who got it from Nikkei.

 

Iwata was quoted at the press conference today saying that he feels responsibility for the poor business performance at Nintendo, and he is sorry to all shareholders. He says the most important thing is to revigorate Nintendo's business as quickly as possible. He will NOT resign, but stay in office to carry that through.

 

How will he turn it around? Serious question here.

Posted

I don't see how he can. It's a self fulfilling prophecy at this point. The Wii U is damned. Keep going with it lose billions, amputate it and lose billions. Trying to figure out which is the least painful road is what they have to decide. I think they need to keep going. Dropping it at this stage would do irreparable damage to the company as a whole.

Posted
From Gaf who got it from Nikkei.

 

 

 

How will he turn it around? Serious question here.

 

Drop the gamepad and release an update that let's the console work with a regular controller. Big price cut and just ride the wave.

Posted
2. Nintendo bled money at retail trying to push hardware - far more than anyone expected - they must be eating close to a $100+ loss per Wii U sold right now or more - not just because of manufacturing cost - but because they are literally having to compensate retailers to provide them with shelf space and having to eat the price drop at the same time. This is horrible - because even if they take that much of a loss - the low gross margins on their own first-party games isn't sufficient to help them break even.

 

This is key. How long can they keep doing this? Retailers have a product which is perfoming badly and would likely drop it if Nintendo were not paying them to keep it in store. The console stays on shelves but doesnt sell so Nintendo are just chucking money away.

 

I don't see how he can. It's a self fulfilling prophecy at this point. The Wii U is damned. Keep going with it lose billions, amputate it and lose billions. Trying to figure out which is the least painful road is what they have to decide. I think they need to keep going. Dropping it at this stage would do irreparable damage to the company as a whole.

 

 

Find the most cost effective way pull the plug on the Wii U. Are the long term games in development worth releasing on Wii U or shift them to a future platform.

 

At this stage I see no point in a Zelda game being released on Wii U at all.

 

Drop the gamepad and release an update that let's the console work with a regular controller. Big price cut and just ride the wave.

 

Defiantly. People like to mention how the Gamepad is the USP but nobody cares about it. Sales will not get any worse without the gamepad. Make the gamepad optional and just pack in a pro controller.

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