Topic: 3DS not profitable?

Just out of curiosity, I'm unable to understand how the 3DS isn't making any profit for Nintendo despite it dominating the dedicated handheld market. I mean, its now coming to 60 million units and can easily reach 80-100 million units this year so that means that it should make some profit right?

Where did you get the idea that it isn't?

Based on todays article that says the NX will replace the current systems.....and that its coming from this source from last year.

http://www.gamnesia.com/articles/the-wii-u-may-be-a-flop-but-...

That's no source. That's just taking a bunch of quotes completely out of context to fit a narrative. Plus, the article was written two years ago. "Forget reality" is right, those numbers mean nothing today.

_{That's getting old.-Morpheel}

@the_shpydar: So just because I got misinformed meant that you have to post that? wow.

The recent NX article I saw today is telling me that the 3DS is slipping and not making profit....which was something that I didn't understand why considering the amount of games that Japanese gamers have....like Monster Hunter.

@the_shpydar: Now I can see how an up vote system would be useful

I see no Sega bashing in this thread?

@arronishere: But the source is still blaming the 3DS is at a net loss regardless of how profitable the source says it.

@arronishere: So that must mean that the 3DS didn't reach Nintendo's expectations.....so does that mean that the 3DS is not profitable?

Nintendolife even says that the 3DS is underperforming.....so I don't understand the logic here.

It's a pretty simple equation. Money earned - money spent = profit.

Did 3DS earn more than it spent?

Yes, yes it did.

@Socar: its called profit margins, even it a product makes money if the profits gained does not match with their projected profit margins then its still considered as a failure.

Don't worry about it, bro. Just go boot up your 3DS, and think about how profitable you can be in Animal Crossing.

Wow man. That's a bit harsh. I understand that I don't post well most of the time, but since I want to understand something here, you're being a bit rude here.

Ok so if the profit margins mean that they haven't reached the projection, then how is underperforming different than not making profit?

No profit margins are the profit you make on a sale, a sales projection is how many sales they expect to make.

It's not that complicated really. The point of the original article (which was 2 years old) was that the 3DS didn't make enough money to offset other expenses. That Nintendo themselves were not profitable. Putting it another way, they weren't saying that the 3DS wasn't profitable they were saying that the 3DS wasn't profitable enough to cover expenses.

Kinda like a household budget. Say you have an income that generally covers your expenses but then you get hit with something. Maybe you need to buy a new car or you had some medical expenses. For that year your household was not "profitable" because your income wasn't high enough. That's effectively what they were saying about the 3DS.

Didn't it become profitable like years ago? Even the 2DS at its price is surely making some good profit.

3DS is making money, and besides Flappy Bird, Nintendo and most indies are probaby still making more money in some areas. That's the type of impression I get, whenever I go to the online stores or the news articles I read.

That's why I didn't get the hype about Xbox One or PS4, but have Xbox One and Wii U.
Also, Kickstarter failed, so it really depends about how much you care about the industry as a whole when you talk profitability, because it matters if the indies and other people are making money.
We don't even have C-Wars, and that was supposed to come out along time ago. China also has the "exclusive" Nintendo stuff, and C-Wars DID come out there(I think). The point is, is that we never hear the full story, and it all still has to do with profitability.

Because an underperformance is relative to expectations while profit is simply about wether you made money or not.

If Nintendo expects 3DS to sell 20 million units within a year, but it only sells 15 million, then it performed below what they expected. But as long as the expenses don't exceed the revenue, then it's still profitable, just maybe not as profitable as they would've liked.