Nintendo’s ‘Game’ To Overcome Loss: Nintendo in Hard on Hard Times

Nintendo

Nintendo’s ‘Game’ To Overcome Loss: Nintendo in Hard on Hard Times

Nintendo is neck deep in trouble. With the waning demand for its Wii U console, it is staring at an annual loss of $240 million. The company is thinking of new ways to overcome this.

New York: For a start, Nintendo is coming up with new business modules and next generation gaming consoles like the Playstation 4. Smartphone games have always attracted its customers. According to Bloomberg, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata declared at a press conference that his company is thinking of a new business structure. Viewing the expansion of smart devices, he said that they were contemplating new ways of how they could use these for gaming purposes. “It is not as simple as moving Mario on a smartphone,” Bloomberg quoted Iwata.

Wall Street Journal reported Iwata as acknowledging that the company needs to change according to the customers changing demands and needs. “The way people use their time, their lifestyles, which they are—has changed. If we remain in one place we will be outdated,” he seems to have said. Iwata did not come up with an immediate solution though. The company it is said has already denied bringing its full-fledged games to mobile. But it might bring in mini-games on to Smartphones and tablets.

Nintendo believes that it would have sold only 2.8 million of its Wii U consoles against its original forecast of 6.2 million. That would include an overall 6.25 million units sold since November 2012. This is far behind Sony’s 4.2 billion Play Station 4 units sold since November 2013. And it has not yet been launched in Japan.

Bloomberg also said that Nintendo fell the most in 12 years on Friday. It has planned to revive its sales for Christmas, banking on iconic Mario and Zelda. The family-focused content of Nintendo is losing its appeal as casual players are moving on to mobile devices and hardcore players prefer faster units like Play Station 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One.

Other heads at Nintendo too admitted the changes in the market scene from video games to Smartphones and tablets and the need for structural changes to Nintendo’s current hardware. The Wii U features a 6.2 inch tablet-like touch screen controller that enables users to connect wirelessly to the console and shift the display from the device to television. Nintendo also has a 2 DS portable machine for casual gamers to its credit.