Nintendo shares drop 5 percent following TGS showcase

by Griffin McElroy on Sep 13th 2011 11:38AM

It seems Japanese investors weren't too thrilled by the presentation Nintendo put together for last night's Tokyo Game Show press conference. Despite revealing a new Mario Tennis, another Monster Hunter title, a firmware update and a different 3DS color, Nintendo's share price dropped to ¥12,290 by the end of trading yesterday -- a five percent day-to-day drop which some investors chalk up to a lineup that doesn't compete with the cheaper offerings of iOS and Android titles.

Speaking to Reuters, Ichiyoshi Investment manager Mitsushige Akino said, "Nintendo succeeded by pulling in people who weren't gamers and their needs now are no longer being filled by Nintendo, they are happy playing games on their mobile phones." We suppose Nintendo could combat further losses by making 3DS games cost 99 cents. Whatever they do, they should do it quickly, as Nintendo's stock has fallen 84 percent from its all time high of ¥70,500 in November 2007.

Source: Reuters

Tags: business, ds, industry, nintendo, share, stock-market, stocks, wii

Reader Comments (110)

But they have...99 cent games....in the e-shop...!!!

@Pandaman

Are they in 3D? 'Cos the point of 3DS is to play 3D games, otherwise, the DS Lite is just fine.

@Pandaman Minimum e-shop price is 2 bucks bub. Even for a demo.

@yomachaser
Maybe then Nintendo starts a marketing campaign to showcase their *cheaper* e-shop games.....!

@Ballistic H
The point of the 3DS is being the next-gen Nintendo portable. The 3D was always just a gimmick to stop people from being disappointed when Nintendo didn't "revolutionize" anything.

@Aguiluz
For some reason they can't make demos free on the eShop.
......... something about not wanting any free items on the shop to control quality. Which somehow prevents demos from existing as well.

Well they dint learn from what everyone was saying after the E3.

Besides making a deal for Monster Hunter the whole line up is lack luster so they shouldn't be shocked at a negative reaction. Did Nintendo honestly think that people would swoon over a new set of the same games again only this time in 3d?

@yomachaser
Um, you can say the same thing about High Def too. "The same Metal Gear, God of War, Gran Tourismo but in HD" but people still like it. Game series with longevity can do whatever they want and they still sell.

@Rain Not even sure why you'd bring up some Sony HD collections ,but those probably won't sell huge number either.

The difference though is most of Nintendo's fortunes depend on people caring about games they basically already own but now in 3d and for many that clearly isn't enough.

@yomachaser

The HD collections are also multiple games at a discounted price. Nintendo's are single games at full price.

@mrantimatter
Ocarina of Time is £25, half the price of the N64 original of £50.

I think, wait no, I'm almost certain that's a price cut of. Hold on.

Let me tally this up.

I can't work out exactly how much but I think there is a 49% discount. It could ever be a greater discount.

@yomachaser

What? lackluster? Nintendo delivered on the games. What more do you people want?

@Rain

You're missing his point entirely. (prices taken from Game website)
Star Fox 64 3d (remake game) £32.99
Lego Harry Potter 4-5 3d (not a remake) £34.99
Compared to
Splinter Cell HD Trilogy (remake game) £24.99
Captain America (not a remake) £39.99

Of course people are eating up the HD classics. They give, in most cases, 3 games with trophy support and 3d support for just over half the price of a full ps3 retail game.

Sucks for Nintendo.

This completely shows the mindset of their investors. They are just old men who know what their wives like the play. If they followed actual gaming news at all they would have at least shown some interest in securing Monster Hunter.

@lonecow

I agree with the old man investors. The retail games would need to be in the $15-$20 range before our family would upgrade to the 3DS.

We've run the math, and we're just not getting the kids a system where the games are $40 each, when they love the iPod games that run for $2 or less.

The iPod doesn't have Pokemon, but the 3DS doesn't have the educational apps that we can get on the iOS system. The kids are getting iPods for Christmas.

@copa

Yeah but do you have a PS3 or 360?

The point I was trying to make unsuccessfully is their investors aren't the same people putting up money for Sony and Microsoft. Nintendo going after the casual market has now totally screwed them as many people said it would. It bought them momentary success.

They had to do it to stay alive. But now they are almost back to where they started. Luckily as Iwata said that have an assload of cash to back them up for a while unlike pre Wii days.

To me the Wii U looks much more like a core gaming system and the 3DS as well. I think Nintendo is trying to get back into the fight with Sony and Microsoft but they are trying to please too many people at once. I say they need to just smile and nod at these investors for now, and then work on their backend and throwing out their casual focus, which Miyamoto has hinted as much.

The only thing that I think balks in the face of this theory is they decided to name the Wii U... Wii U. But again maybe that is their way to try and please everyone.

@lonecow

Why was this downvoted?

People need to stop paying attention to investors and the stock market. It's so unbelievably fickle. Everyone is all hard-on for Apple and App markets right now, but there's no telling if it will remain popular in the long run. Besides, do people honestly want Nintendo to copy Apple now? Would people be happy if the 3DS were just a bunch of apps and mini-games instead of Nintendo's well-established franchises? Would that make investors happy?

I am honestly curious. I mean, I kinda stopped paying attention to Nintendo a while ago, but that's because of crap like Wii Sports Resort, which I regrettably bought and stopped playing after less than a week. But with the new Mario Kart and 3D Mario, I'm paying attention again.

The cycle continues. Nintendo's on top, then on ambiguously on the bottom, rinse repeat.

I just wish they would listen to what people want.

@Rain
It seems to me they have.People want games and Nintendo gave them games.

@kvn7918 Nope, the people wanted new games not rehashes and the investors wanted something (anything) to stave the feeling that Nintendo will still be a relevant player in a 5 five years time.

Apple is (whether some want to admit it or not) steamrolling Nintendo badly at this point and the investors were hoping for some new strategies to slow the bleeding and compete better.

People want to keep on their blinders and blather on about stuff like 99c games and Angry Birds but thats only part of the problem. The more expensive games on iOS are still only like 4-10 bucks and many of them are fantastic so Nintendo's pricing model of everything costing $35-40 seems suicidal in the long view, and IMO it is.

@Rain

"Apple is (whether some want to admit it or not) steamrolling Nintendo badly"

Prove it with something other than opinion filled editorials.

@TwEE
Huh, who said that? Don't reply to me with someone elses quote.

@TwEE
that's actually kinda hard, short of pollign adults to see which one they prefer to game on.

Most people end to just point to anecdotal evidence to support it, such as falling ds and wii sales even before the 3Ds hit, and then correlate that to the rise in ios game sales.

That of corse doesn't prove causation though. I guess you could point to the sales of 3ds casual games as well though.

@yomachaser
Pricing is more of a industry wide thing it's just not Nintendo,when psv games start selling for $30-$40 is Sony going to be in trouble too?I agree that game prices are too high but that across the board from consoles to handhelds,console manufacturers and game makers need to lower the cost of games or i feel the industry is going to collapse under it's own weight.
As for rehashes welcome to the game industry or should i say the entertainment industry.Where stuff get rehashed every day,this is nothing new i don't know why people suddenly start acting like Nintendo is the only one doing it when Sony and other third parties are farting out HD remakes as soon as the new HD paint dries.Nintendo has alot of sequels coming for the 3DS and a few originals and i for one am excited to play most of them.

@yomachaser I'm sick of people calling Nintendo games rehashes.

They are the only people who put out Mario, Metroid and Zelda games and we get one of those franchises ones every two years and they are ALWAYS good. Always. I'm not talking the sports games or kart or whatever. I'm talking the main franchises. Always good. Never bad. you can't name a single game in their main series that is bad.

And it's always these same people who bitch about it that cream their pants over a new Call of Duty or Madden. They hypocrisy is hilarious.

@lonecow - That doesn't mean that they aren't rehashes.

@kevinski

They aren't rehashes. Each one plays differently. Mario Galaxy 2 is the only Mario game where it is exactly like the one before it, and I was happy about that because I wanted more Mario Galaxy. Mario 3D Land doesn't look like any Mario game I've seen before. Skyward Sword looks totally different in terms of setup and gameplay than any other Zelda, the handheld Zeldas are way way different than other Zelda games. Other M was the worst Metroid game but it was still good and way different than anything they had done before, Metroid Prime same thing.

Should I go on?

You don't know the definition of the word rehash.

Guitar Hero 2,3,4,5,6 Rock Band, Dance Central, Call of Duty, Halo, Gears of War... REHASHES

@lonecow

There's a touch of bias in your definition of rehash, rhythm games aside.

Maybe, just maybe. People are finally coming to their senses. I mean seriously they fell for the Wii trick, it was nice, you know waggle and all that but even though it sold like hot cakes the Wii was a complete & utter _______.

How can a company survive so long by releasing the exact same things every single chance they get.

woo hoo skyward sword, have you ever heard about Skyrim?? I mean I can't even think of anything else to use for comparison....

Isn't Skyrim just Fallout 3 with swords?

Both games look amazing, and I can't wait to enjoy the hell out of each of them. That was just a terrible comparison for someone complaining about a company rehashing the same games.

@MrAhh "How can a company survive so long by releasing the exact same things every single chance they get. "

Blizzard says hi.

@MrAhh
I don't know why you would make that comparison in the first place.

@kvn7918 please, Nintendo can announce Super Mario Crap Edition and everyone will go crazy over it, the same way they went crazy over the Wii, & the same way they went crazy over the Wii U.

These games although I grew up with them are played out. Every hardware revision, Mario adventure game + all the possible iterations, maybe a Zelda, hope to God a Metroid, possibly a donkey Kong.

& the crowd goes crazy, down vote me to hell I only know children who sit in front of a DS (pick one) and not a soul that cares about a Wii anymore.

@MrAhh
Actually the Wii u's problem was that it really generated no hype at all, and didn't even get a mention last night.

People just aren't seeing the purpose of it, given it's single controller design. For a company that focused on multiplayer for so long, it seems like an odd product. Also the lack of any killer aps so far, with no first party game announced yet.

@MrAhh

Actually, thats exactly how companies DO survive. From Call of Duty to Madden, game companies rely on sequels to survive. Originial titles sell notriously bad. Look at stuff like Mirror's Edge.

This is true in many businesses. How much of a difference is there really between a 2010 Mustang and a 2011 Mustang?

@MrAhh
It's the same thing with every videogame company when Activision announces call of duty MW 4 guess what people are going to go crazy something with finalfantasy 15,Battlefield 4,Bioshock 4,Oblivion 6,Fallout 4,MGS 5,Street Fighter 5 Tekken 7 Grand Turismo 6,God of War 4,New Gears of war,Killzone 4,Uncharted 4,Infamous 3 dude i can go on and on so stop acting like Nintendo is the only one at fault here.

@Epoque
I'm pretty sure Fallout is just Elder Scrolls but in a future apocalyptic setting.

@Faceless Troll
...Blizzard has 8 Base games total and 6 xpacs total and that's over 20 years. I wouldn't consider them rehashing the same content. Now (to beat a dead horse) if you pointed at the CoD games of recent with yearly iterations with marginal upgrades I'd agree.

@Grimbear13 Nintendo has considerably more games. If you're going to accuse a company of doing nothing but rehashes perspective helps.

@MrAhh I wouldn't say it was a trick but I do agree that Nintendo spent a lot if their time on remaking games. They rode on the dedicated crowd and the hype that followed but they got tooyou confident and ignored the possibility that people would grow old of their repetitive actions. They've stumbled and are having hard time standing back up. We'll have a more accurate view of what's going on after the holidays.

Hey Griffin, superman that hoe.

@araiza OMG! I still believe they mentioned that on MBMBAM. Anybody up for some swaddling?

@araiza

We don't superman no more.
WE SPIDER MAN DAT HOE!

@Mrguy you know that guy Wouldn't that just be supermanning minus the sheet?

Personally I'm ok with this. The quality of the games dropped when they started catering to a new audience. Gamecube games were so much better than the wii games. Mario Kart anyone?

@shinjix2

Yes Mario Kart wii was the best so far, you're right.

@TwEE

Mario Kart Wii was terrible!! It was severely watered down for the uber casual audience. Double Dash was far superior. It still required skill. The only redeemable parts of wii was the retro courses

@shinjix2

Congratulations. you are the first person I've ever seen say Double Dash was superior to anything. Widely regarded as the worst Mario Kart.

The best Mario Kart was the DS version.

@Dickhole Pasta

I'll give you Galaxy, when it doesn't add assistance to the less advanced players. That's all I'll give you.

Mario Kart Wii was terrible, and I will find a DD vs DS argument legitimate.

But lets talk IPs. Gamecubes? Pikmin and Animal Crossing. The Wii.......WiiSport/Play/Music/Fit/Resort......

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Nintendo shares drop 5 percent following TGS showcase

Reader Comments (110)

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:41AM Pandaman said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:52AM Ballistic H said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:53AM yomachaser said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:11PM Pandaman said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:44PM Yuutuu said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 9:23PM blahblah55 said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:42AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:43AM yomachaser said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:47AM Rain said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:55AM yomachaser said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:14PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:36PM Rain said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 1:29PM Mrguy you know that guy said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 1:49PM Qelgon said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:44AM lonecow said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:52AM copa said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:34PM lonecow said

Posted: Sep 14th 2011 1:16AM DaDiddles said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:46AM Rain said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:49AM kvn7918 said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:01PM yomachaser said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:10PM TwEE said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:20PM Rain said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:22PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:31PM kvn7918 said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:38PM lonecow said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 2:06PM kevinski said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 2:59PM lonecow said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 4:01PM freaparn said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:46AM MrAhh said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:51AM Epoque said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:51AM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:52AM kvn7918 said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:12PM MrAhh said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:24PM mrantimatter said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:28PM R Planteer said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:46PM kvn7918 said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:50PM pluupy said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:50PM Grimbear13 said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 2:40PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 8:34PM Coldpillow said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:47AM araiza said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:04PM yomachaser said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 1:10PM Mrguy you know that guy said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 3:37PM yomachaser said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 11:47AM shinjix2 said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:12PM TwEE said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:36PM shinjix2 said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:43PM lonecow said

Posted: Sep 13th 2011 12:58PM shinjix2 said

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