iEntry 10th Anniversary
Home
Reviews
Is Nintendo Destined To Live Forever?
The near apocalypse of video games in the early 1980’s could have ended them before Nintendo’s reign as video game king began. The insurgence of competition during the 1990’s could have left Nintendo in the shadows, for “cooler” and trendier offerings. In the previous generation of gaming consoles, the Nintendo Gamecube came in third place for sales. Some were writing off Nintendo, forecasting that they’d go the way of Sega and become a software publisher exclusively. Can you imagine playing a Mario game on the Xbox? Yea, it’s crazy to think about.
During all these periods of time during Nintendo’s two decade long (plus) lifespan, it could have gone sour for many reasons. Yet, Mario & Co. keep treading on and now they look to be as strong as ever. It’s hard to imagine, but less than 3 years ago most analysts weren’t giving Nintendo an ice cube’s chance in hell for dominating the current gen console “war”. Microsoft, and Sony looked to duke it out over who would lead the way into the High Definition age of entertainment.
Nintendo saw where this trend was heading, and instead decided to branch off and create their own little niche in the new gaming world. A savvy pricing structure, cheaper hardware components, and a fresh new way to play video games led a revolution in gaming that is still going strong. The Nintendo Wii has put its third Christmas season in the books, and it was yet again the ‘hot’ item to get under the tree.
Nintendo’s story is unbelievable as much as it’s inspirational if you look at their history. Miyamoto, the brains behind most of Nintendo’s franchises represents the company’s unlikely journey to the top. His father was a English teacher in Japan, yet he admits to knowing very little English. Miyamoto was originally hired as a staff artist in 1977, with his first major project being Donkey Kong. Can you see yourself sitting in on those early Nintendo staff meetings? His big ideas for ushering in Nintendo as a successful company were a big ape, and at the time a nameless ‘Jumpman’.
A Plumber As The Savior Of The Video Game Market
All of this history of success, faltering, and now re-emergence seems to prove that Nintendo will always be here. Who’s poised to contend with them at this point? As reports surface of Microsoft, and Sony laying off thousands of employees, Nintendo is sitting in the black. Every Xbox 360, and PS3 that gets sold actually is a loss of profit for Microsoft and Sony. While Nintendo actually makes money from their hardware sales.
If you want the largest indication of the power of Nintendo, compare their stock prices from 2004 to 2008. The closing price for a piece of Nintendo stock in 2004 was $11.75. Now, even during hard economic times Nintendo is trading at nearly $50/share.
———————————————-
Is it fate that Nintendo saved video games from the great depression in the 1980’s? Is it fate now, that during the largest recession that the United States, and the world is facing Nintendo is selling just as well as it was during launch?
– Is Nintendo destined to live forever?
I love Nintendo as much as the next guy, and it saddens me to say this but: all great empires eventually fall. Nintendo is probably not going to be around FOREVER, however I will say that it will be around for an extremely long time. It will outlive the xbox and ps, it will outlive the its next competitors, and many more competitors to come. The time span between now and the day that Nintendo falls will be so great that it will feel like forever and I am extremely happy about that.
To be completely honest the only way Nintendo will fall is if some other random company creates a new innovative system that is cheap before Nintendo does it. Microsoft and Sony won’t and can’t do that. If either of them try to create something innovative and cheap they may lose many of their fans simply for the fact that they will be using cheaper components which won’t make the game seem realistic (like that’s that gaming is all about [i'm being sarcastic if you didn't realize]).
Here are my predictions for the future:
Nintendo is going to take these profits from the Wii and create a Wii2 which will have the same features and some improvements (maybe the controllers will have a built in wii motion plus, slightly better graphics, etc.). This second system may not sell as much as the current Wii only for the fact that people may not want to buy a new system that is very similar to their old one.
Sony will make a PS4 and try to be similar to the Wii but not exactly the same. They will fail and stop making PS’s, their entire gaming division might close down, or they will remain as developers/publishers.
Microsoft will continue to make new systems and copy the Wii as much as possible without being able to get sued (that’s what they do best). They will hold their own in the gaming industry for a while, maybe even for such a long time that it will seem like they will never stop. The only reason I say this is because Microsoft isn’t really known for quitting. Take a look at Vista, they are still trying their hardest to make people use it even though they have a new windows coming out.
I definitely agree with your most of your points. All great empires can’t last forever. It definitely will take some stark competition from another company to oust Nintendo, and the beast they’ve created with the Nintendo Wii.
Of course, after the success of the Playstation 2 nobody thought Sony would be touched going into this current gen. I think that the systems we have now are going to have the longest lifespan so far. It will be interesting to see what the next round will have in store.
did you people know that Nintendo was hailed the greatest company/business on earth by some high up stock something or other
no i aint gone mad stock exchange top guys talking business and trade blar dee blar
hailed Nintendo as the greatest ran business on the planet ever
there over 100 years old and never made a loss
nintendo is ran with ultra efficiency and effective profit
there bussiness changed over the 100 plus years to be just so at the right time EVERY TIME
there loyal to there home town and community
if you look at Nintendos history from the very beginning its no surprise they adapted and basically bitch slapped sony into near non existence and put a custard pie in the face of the worlds biggest company Microsoft
i love Nintendo everything they do is COMMON SENSE PURE COMMON SENSE
yawn!
Had you seen this video compilation of kids going nuts for the wii? It makes me feel sad for them. Even though I liek the Wii. Especially the crying kid.