Thoughts on Nintendo's financial state:
Nintendo is also in an entirely different league, financially, than Sega ever was. And one common trend in all these collapsing video game companies is that there's not one big issue that topples them ... it's just a series of bad decisions which iteratively hurt the company from multiple angles. This is something Nintendo doesn't seem to be doing. They actually seem to be making better decisions as time goes on.
I would actually argue that, in the console business, they likely have the strongest legs to stand on, just because their plans generally give the strongest returns. Microsoft and Sony, for example, spend years with their video game business in the red before really building it up and making money off of it (and whether or not that money actually eliminates the deficit they created is not really shown). And they use a lot of nonsense to make their numbers look better, which is part of that new-age business crap that creates inherit instability in practically every company that does it. (High risk gains along with high risk losses.)
But, because Nintendo doesn't generally use shaky practices, they don't seem to usually be hurting to the degree people fear (or want).
Honestly, I don't think there's much danger in the way of the company collapsing like Sega, Atari, Hostess, or what it looks like Sony is doing right now. The largest danger currently is actually a Japanese company problem, and that's the currency value compared to USD. That's likely the largest source of loss right now. But that should be changing in the next couple years as long as economic recovery keeps pace or increases (which it looks like it is)
If Nintendo has record losses for the next several quarters, though ... then it would make sense to worry. But their financial track record is ridiculously stable, regardless of how their products are perceived to have performed in the context of competition, so it just doesn't make sense to worry about it.
If you make a device, sell it a bit above cost ... but you sell less units than a competitor ... as long as you sold enough units above the threshold of manufacturing cost you actually made money even if the competitor sold more units. If the competitor lost money, then you actually made more money than they did, even though the public would concede that they "won" and your product and company will be coming to a tragic end any day now. But you'd actually be in a better, financial, position.
I would actually argue that, in the console business, they likely have the strongest legs to stand on, just because their plans generally give the strongest returns. Microsoft and Sony, for example, spend years with their video game business in the red before really building it up and making money off of it (and whether or not that money actually eliminates the deficit they created is not really shown). And they use a lot of nonsense to make their numbers look better, which is part of that new-age business crap that creates inherit instability in practically every company that does it. (High risk gains along with high risk losses.)
But, because Nintendo doesn't generally use shaky practices, they don't seem to usually be hurting to the degree people fear (or want).
Honestly, I don't think there's much danger in the way of the company collapsing like Sega, Atari, Hostess, or what it looks like Sony is doing right now. The largest danger currently is actually a Japanese company problem, and that's the currency value compared to USD. That's likely the largest source of loss right now. But that should be changing in the next couple years as long as economic recovery keeps pace or increases (which it looks like it is)
If Nintendo has record losses for the next several quarters, though ... then it would make sense to worry. But their financial track record is ridiculously stable, regardless of how their products are perceived to have performed in the context of competition, so it just doesn't make sense to worry about it.
If you make a device, sell it a bit above cost ... but you sell less units than a competitor ... as long as you sold enough units above the threshold of manufacturing cost you actually made money even if the competitor sold more units. If the competitor lost money, then you actually made more money than they did, even though the public would concede that they "won" and your product and company will be coming to a tragic end any day now. But you'd actually be in a better, financial, position.
