With Nintendo delivering its first quarter results the trifecta of platform holder results is in and the adage that video games are recession proof is officially dead.
Brutal facts: Net sales down year-on-year by 40.1%. Operating income down year-on-year by 66.1%.
Nintendo blames currency fluctuations but also, tellingly, it blames a lack of 'blockbuster' titles for the Wii sales declining from 5.17 million in the same period last year to 2.23 this. Given that software sales fell from 40.41 million units to 31.07 year-on-year, the company might have a point.
In terms of the DS (and Lite and DSi), unit sales fell from 694 million worldwide in the first quarter last year to 597 million: the DSi made up 365 million of the latter figure. Software also suffered, with last year seeing 3,659 million DS games (and other software) sold compared to 2,909 million this time around.
Analysts have been quick to leap on these figures, with the Chicago Tribune quoting Satoru Kikuchi's (an analyst at Deutsche Securities in Japan) feeling that currency is less to do with the decline than boredom. "These casual gamers and light users, they're getting bored. Nintendo needs to keep their attention with new software, but that hasn't happened."
You can read Nintendo's own report here (PDF).
Brutal facts: Net sales down year-on-year by 40.1%. Operating income down year-on-year by 66.1%.
Nintendo blames currency fluctuations but also, tellingly, it blames a lack of 'blockbuster' titles for the Wii sales declining from 5.17 million in the same period last year to 2.23 this. Given that software sales fell from 40.41 million units to 31.07 year-on-year, the company might have a point.
In terms of the DS (and Lite and DSi), unit sales fell from 694 million worldwide in the first quarter last year to 597 million: the DSi made up 365 million of the latter figure. Software also suffered, with last year seeing 3,659 million DS games (and other software) sold compared to 2,909 million this time around.
Analysts have been quick to leap on these figures, with the Chicago Tribune quoting Satoru Kikuchi's (an analyst at Deutsche Securities in Japan) feeling that currency is less to do with the decline than boredom. "These casual gamers and light users, they're getting bored. Nintendo needs to keep their attention with new software, but that hasn't happened."
You can read Nintendo's own report here (PDF).
Companies:
Nintendo
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Comments
The one with an eye for detail! 30 Jul 2009 15:19
1/3
597 million DS's sold in one quarter, i would get worried that nobody maybe left to sell to next year. If we want to lock up carbon those 3.659 Billion cartridges might help. Man, some people might have ten of them, they could be hooked up in a distributive computing platform to make games to compete with PSP titles, whoops, not even that would be enough. If anybody has 100 of them and room in a backpack for distributed computer (note I don't say "super computer"), please post us here.
Andy P 30 Jul 2009 15:53
2/3
> 597 million DS's sold in one quarter
I think you'll find that's 597M DS *games*. Which is, y'know, still pretty good, but quite different.
I think you'll find that's 597M DS *games*. Which is, y'know, still pretty good, but quite different.
Rutabaga 31 Jul 2009 12:44
3/3
I think someones calculator has broke or you need to use a decimal point (in the right place). Spong your standards are slipping.