Nintendo has published the transcript of its latest shareholder Q&A, part of the company's 81st Annual General Meeting which took place on yesterday, Tuesday 29th June, 2021.
While the official English translation is yet to be published on Nintendo's Japanese website, that hasn't stopped people like us Google Translating it, or people like Cheesemeister on Twitter providing a significantly better translation of the ten-question document than Google's automated service.
The Q&A covers a variety of hot subjects, ranging from the very serious (gender issues and human rights issues in its supply chain) to the speculative (the rumoured 'Switch Pro' and the possibility of further entries in the company's Classic Mini consoles line) to the downright dull (Euro exchange rates).
Unfortunately, the answers tend to fall very much into the [WORDS GO HERE BUT NO COMMENT] category. For example, Cheesemeister's translation of Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa discussing changes to the current Nintendo Switch Online offering are as follows:
A pretty standard 'introduce subject, discuss success of subject, add nugget of non-information that doesn't really answer the question' tactic, then.
When asked what he thought of the E3 2021 Switch Pro rumours, Furukawa had this to say (via Cheesemeister's translation):
Another 'we're always developing hardware' answer there — Doug Bowser would be proud.
It's a similar story with the possibility of Classic Mini consoles ("we will continue to consider how to convey their appeal to new generations"). On the subject of gender issues, Furukawa was similarly vague:
As reported by VGC, Furukawa also addressed a question regarding human rights issues in its supply chain, to which he responded with the following answer (again, thanks VGC)
We are aware that there was a report that Uyghurs may have been forced to work in the factories of our supply chain. However, as far as we have investigated the factory pointed out in the report, we could not find any record that it is our business partner, nor have we received any reports of forced labour in our supply chain.
In order to ensure that forced labour does not occur in our supply chain, we have established a CSR procurement policy and we ask our suppliers to comply with our activities based on the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines.
We conduct our business under the policy that if there is any actual or serious risk of forced labour, not only for Uyghurs, we will stop doing business with them.
As a global company, we will continue to work with our production partners to implement ethical policies regarding manufacturing, labour and sourcing, and to ensure high quality mass production. In addition to apparel products, we are also committed to the same policies that we have just described for our suppliers.
We're still looking through the answers to other questions and wrestling with various translations. In the meantime, give Cheesemeister a follow, will you? And feel free to grade Furukawa-san on his skillful non-answers in the comments below.
On the plus side, the Nintendo honchos in the meeting did reveal their favourite games! (Spoilers: they're mostly Nintendo games. Fancy that!)
[source nintendo.co.jp, via twitter.com, videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 87
Skillful Non-Answers 101 must be a requirement for many business degrees, no?
I'm sure some workshops serve as refresher courses.
This is my comment. It is a comment that I have made. Aren't comments great? You have now read it. Next question please!
Honestly, I'm surprised, in a good way, on the critic view written in the article. You said exactly what most of us were thinking about the generic question dodging. Thank you
If these were Jeopardy answers, no one would guess the questions.
@Tyranexx and the whole degree in case of politicians 😓😅
How can so many words say so little.
@SPM Good point. That DOES fit a lot of Political Science majors.... 🤔
Guy with $40s worth of shares in a billion dollar company -
'So is the Switch Pro real?'
Nintendo - 'Yes.'
A whole lot of baloney was spilled here. Sometimes I wonder why these kinds of questions are even asked, you won't get an answer out of them! Well.. not a proper one, anyway.
He was asked about Switch Pro but he doesn't comment on any products in development. Ergo, Switch Pro is in development.
Why don't the shareholders ask him to elaborate in depth when he gives all fluff non-informative answer?
Meanwhile, the proverbial Insiders™ are already grapevining in full confidence that Nintendo plans to release Switch Pro in 2022.😎
It's never been a secret that Nintendo has been working on the next-gen successor for as long as Switch exists, and each year of Credible Source Leaks brings us closer to its release which the tabloids, fanblogs and 4chan's "Nintendo nephews" will undoubtedly label the hardware analogue of Final Fantasy Versus XIII - a prior lineup's iteration "delayed" long enough to be repurposed as the next "main entry" instead.
@Bobb except there's nothing to criticize here. No part of Nintendo's plans and activities impacts our lives beyond entertainment and detrimental addictions to it. What we're "feeling" on the matter should be reserved for civil services, governments and other political entities, in relation to technically more topical matters of our existence than what resolution to play Mario or Fortnite in.
After having read the article, I can see that Nintendo Life has the option for a comment. I will say, that it is my utmost priority that readers are informed by my comment, so that they know exactly what I think about this matter. Hopefully, this comment will continue to help grow the community and offer room for more replies.
NINJA [REDACTED]
There IS a Switch Pro/Revision coming. No one knows when it will officially be launched or announced, but Bloomberg doesn't make up stories for months about it if it's not happening. Nintendo is balancing how to announce it without cannablizing the current success of the console.
As for Nintendo 64 mini, fine, but I've fallen out of the mini console phase. They were fun to collect, play for a week, before I'd unhook them and display them on my shelf. Just put the games on Nintendo Switch Online, or port over Rare Replay. I think we'll see GBA games on NSO before Nintendo 64 ones.
Want switch pro to be revealed or at this point switch 2 ... stop buying switch and lite. Nintendo never reveals a new system until the old doesn't sell.
Why is this still a surprise? We know they're not going to confirm or deny anything nor give a straight answer.
Why does it take shareholders to ask Nintendo questions about NSO and stuff instead of gaming journalists? Seems the business guys are better at holding them to account. Shame Furukawa answers questions like a politician. 😐
@andjahiam Rumors say that the new Switch model will phase out the original one.
For those asking why shareholders only ask questions like these, I believe the questions are vetted and chosen in advance of these calls, so there is sadly little room for improvised answers.
I like donner kebab
@nhSnork this might be a slip on my part as english is not my first language. As far a I know, to have a critic view is different than to criticize something.
Let's not even talk about constructive criticism. The internet is too much used to seeing the word critic as a negative
When the Classic Consoles were announced I was so pumped up for a N64 Mini….. but Nintendo keeps disappointing me time after time ….
Add F-Zero to the fuel fire
However at least my wish of Advance Wars was fulfilled… only to be disappointed that it’s a remake of both games I’ve played to DEATH
@fafonio I think the Advance Wars and N64 Mario Party remakes show us why they haven't added GBA/N64 to NSO...
To be fair, what else do they expect him to say? Has Nintendo ever made a major new hardware announcement at an investor meeting like this? Do they really think he'd just say they're working on an N64 app, but don't want to 'fully' announce it yet?
To me, it reads like asking a developer in a standard interview if they're working on a sequel to a beloved series. Even if they are, they certainly wouldn't just say so without an accompanying press release and announcement plan.
@SwitchVogel "We plan to add more systems to the NSO service in the future"
It's entirely another to not answer those same questions when they come from your company's own shareholders (and shareholders who have direct access to the president for posing questions at these meetings, are probably not minor shareholders either).
@Northwind Meaning that these "open" shareholder meetings are entirely for public consumption. Real questions would be asked elsewhere, one presumes.
To be fair, what else do they expect him to say? Has Nintendo ever made a major new hardware announcement at an investor meeting like this?
@SwitchVogel That begs the question, then: why publish an article on NL about these pro forma responses?
I swear, I've been involved in the game industry for 3 decades and Nintendo stance on hardware has never changed and they CONSTANTLY reiterate it. Yet exactly zero fans and maybe handful of media outlets seem to get it.
Nintendo makes new hardware when one of it's superstar game designers comes up with a game concept that isn't playable on current hardware. SNES was because Super Mario Kart needed mode 7, N64 was because Super Mario 3d needed 3d acceleration, Game Cube was about FF7 not fitting on a cartage (long story, but that was the reason for the Nintendo PlayStation disk based collaboration, and when Nintendo ditched that FF7 went to Sony), Wii was about motion controls ... and on and on.
No one is ever going to come to them and say "I can't make this game unless it's in 4k." Period. Not happening. Ever.
So while new hardware from Nintendo is a given at some point, it will not be for an upgrade just because switch is missing some features people think should be "standard" in modern consoles. It will be because new hardware is the only way a new game gets made.
@Porky that’s exactly what I don’t understand. I want to say ‘in real life that doesn’t happen’… but this is real life. I don’t get it. It’s like the person asking the questions is only doing so because they’ve been told to and they don’t actually care about the answer so long as they get ANY answer. The whole thing seems completely pointless.
@Northwind
You don't go to a lot of shareholder meetings do you? Everything you assume is incorrect,
1 - These are the answers given to shareholders by every company to almost every question. They are so common they have a name; non-committal answers.
2 - If you own a single share you can submit questions for Nintendo Q&A and you get mailed the answers. For the most part, every question will be addressed as long as it's relevant. Again, this is not unique to Nintendo, it's how shares work. For the Q&A you get the exact same information and have the exact same chance of getting an answer with 1 share as you do with 49% controlling interest.
3 - These are NOT the answers given to people who have access to the CEO. Most of them sit ON THE BOARD, and are the ones answering the questions, not asking them.
4 - The point of the Q&A is not to get a straight answer to every question. It is there because you ask 200 questions and while 198 get completely BS useless answers, 2 get a "not a this time" or "yes". So you leave the Q&A with more information then you had going in, just not a complete roadmap of the inner workings of the company that could place it as a competitive disadvantage.
@Bobb yeah, guess that's why I misinterpreted your comment, too. Few internet denizens seem to possess awareness that critique means inquisitive studies as opposed to caustic subjective bellyaching, so I've come to assume the worst.
Prevarication 🙄
@nhSnork it's all good.
Reading yours and other comments, I think I can see why the way the opinions were presented can have negative repercussions too
@Rob3008 "How can so many words say so little."
Please, this is small potatoes. Watch any YongYea video where he stretches 5 minutes' worth of content into half an hour. It's painful.
Just say “we have nothing to announce at this time regarding that” or the classic “no comment”. Shareholders should know by now that they won’t be given access to behind the scenes info. Sure, if you want their opinion on certain things, ask away. But thinking they will actually say “yes, the Switch Pro is currently in production” is pretty dumb.
@Northwind
Because it was.
You made an authoritative statement about something you adamantly know nothing about rather then seek information to inform your opinion. That's immature and is how dangerous, damaging misinformation ends up drowning out the truth, so I made a conscious decision to condescend to YOUR STATEMENT given I'm speaking from a position of actual understanding.
It's not about you or me personally, I'm sure there are a billion things you understand way better then I do given we all only know a tiny fragment of what's knowable. But if I encounter something I know nothing about (and I do, like, all the time) my first instinct is to ask for clarification rather then just make assumptions and share those assumptions with others.
What do u people expect them to say about no switch pro? Say no, we will never release new hardware? No we never try to make our successor better, or have plans in place in case switch sales go down? 🤦🏻♂️ They already told u there's no new switch that will be released this year. The garbage that they said this about switch lite, no, they left wiggle room in that comment & was accurate at that time. They are smart about the words they use, but seem unequivocal on a switch pro being released this year. I bet the same ppl who believe this switch pro stuff think there's no such thing as voter fraud... and think THOSE ppl are the conspiracy theorists 🤣.
OhmyGodOhmyGodOhmyGod!!!
This surely MUST mean that there really IS going to be an N64 Mini, yes? YES?? Just read between the lines between those actual lines and we simply CANNOT deny that it's actually real anymore...
@SigourneyBeaver Exactly. Provided that translation is accurate, he's just confirmed existence of the next Switch hardware... and everyone's making out that he said nothing!
@SwitchVogel That's actually how we found out about the switch. It was the NX and part of Nintendo's 3 Pillars idea. That and the QoL sensor that vanished as mysteriously as it came.
@Meteoroid,
I would not hold your breath waiting for any Switch Pro news.
@VenomousAlbino please, Sideways on YouTube is one of the most painful content creators on the platform. He poses a question related to music in video games, talks about stuff only tangentially related to it or completely off topic for twenty minutes, then gives the simple answer that didn’t need the extra information. Truly horrible writing skills.
I just noticed that one answer that's pretty important was left out; Nintendo reaffirmed there commitment to selling hardware for profit. They are the only ones to do this, with Sony and MS consoles being sold at a loss until well into their life cycle.
This is way Nintendo consoles are always barebones and lack features that, honestly, no one thought were features (wait ... it can't play DVDs?). If they can save $1, they will. So even if we see an upgrade, no one is going to be happy. One of two things will happen:
1 - it will still be missing a ton of things people wanted and compromise on everything
2 - It will cost $600
@Entrr_username how tru are those rumors at this point.
Why does anyone even bother asking these questions? It's always a vague non-answer. It's not like the President of Nintendo is just gonna suddenly drop a bomb and be like "Oh yes, we actually have a Switch Pro coming out but we haven't announced it yet, and the N64 Classic is real, and while we're at it F-Zero and Star fox are getting a reboot, stay tuned to the next Nintendo Direct bros."
This article is kinda difficult to read... 🙄
I preferred the last president. He looked super serious but actually had a fun side. Still, no one is Iwata...
@HeadPirate
Many companies have said the Switch isn't powerful enough to run their games. They don't say specifically that it needs 4K, but that kind of power would open up the Switch to several games.
Seriously,
Do switch need more games? I have a backlog of 10's of games waiting to be played. I have reach to the conclusion that this guy's really know what they are doing, they make market research and know exactly how many games they have to make in other to make the most of it
@cleveland124
You have that backwards. Nintendo has no reason at all to appeal to other game developers and never has. The switch has the largest growing install base of any platform. You want to make it so 80 million people can't play your game? Your loss. It's not like Nintendo is having a hard time moving switches.
Besides UBSoft, EA, ID, and 2K flat out told Nintendo they would not publish a game on their platform because it wasn't powerful enough ... 10 years ago, on the Wii U. Did they respond by making a more powerful console in the Switch? Hardly. The switch still lags behind the Xbox One and PS4 and is well below the specs these companies were asking for.
But did they all forget they ever said that and instead invest in creative ways to port their games to the less powerful switch when it started to break sales records? Obviously.
@Northwind
To be clear, this is also intended to be condescending and respectful.
You should look up the word condescending. It doesn't mean what you think it means. I went out of my way to inform you that isn't a personal attack, but just a way of speaking from a position of superior knowledge to patronize someone who made a comment about something they didn't know about, which is what I was doing. I like to be open and honest in communication.
You should also look up the Etymological fallacy.
Condescending and disrespectful are different words. I am not being one by admitting to do the other. I was condescending, but I was also respectful. I explained that its a human failing that I also fall victim to and even suggested that you would be right to condescend me if I was to speak of one of the things I'm sure you know more about then I do.
If you find it disrespectful that someone calls you out for speaking from a place of ignorance (look that one up before a reply as well), I would encourage you to reconsider. I love when people have the courage to straight up tell me I have no idea what I'm talking about when that's the case ... it gives me an opportunity to inform my opinion.
@Northwind You're fine. This site is starting to have a tendency I'm noticing.
@Meteoroid
Not sure where I gave the impression I had an opinion against either selling hardware for profit or using it as a loss leader to sell games (and in turn sell devkits and licensing), but if I did it was unintended. I agree, both are valid, it's just about what you're company want to go for.
Nintendo is ... complicated from a business standpoint. It's US evaluation is around 10 billion (which includes 7 develops), but they wholly own The Pokémon Company which is estimated to be worth around 20 billion. It's not common for a subsidiary of a company to be big enough to buy it's parent twice, but it really isolates them from any real danger if the publisher messes up. If Nintendo lost everything in the Wii U era ... they could have just make TPC public and sold a 2% stake in an IPO to pay for 4-5 years of operations.
It's just like Xbox. Xbox is 20 years old and Xbox division has been losing money for 20 years. But given Xbox division is 0.001% of Microsoft total revenue ... who cares?
Amazingly, Sony is the only console maker in any real danger. Sure, the PlayStation is a hugely successful product and I don't see that changing any time soon .. but it's been propping up Sony's loses in other areas. A single bad year from PlayStation and Sony might have some difficult decisions to make.
@HeadPirate
Still many games don't come to the Switch. EA doesn't put any of their big games on it. Many people like me have multiple systems to game on so I know Nintendo loses sales because I can't buy some of those games on the Switch. Things are fine and dandy when your product is selling as the Switch is but a console manufacturer hasn't won back to back generations since PS1/PS2. If the Switch 2 doesn't generate the same success the lack of games is going to speed Nintendo's fall. Much like the Wii U following the Wii.
Good, I like the price point where it's at now. Adding more to the service is just going to cost more, and I don't care about any bonuses, I just want to play online so I don't want to be nickle and dimed to death. Playstation gives away free games that I don't care about that clog up my hard drive space, they're fine games, but if I didn't choose them, they're probably not the kinds of games that I really want to play generally. And that's fine if they were really free, but I have to pay 3 times what Nintendo is charging just to play my games online.
@cleveland124
I mean your speculation is just as good as mine, but a few points of fact I think are questionable.
Nintendo is not a console designer. They are a game publisher who have such insane standards that they build their own hardware to meet the needs of their studios.
There is no "winner" to a console generation, other then in the opinions of fanboys. The real world is both more and less complicated. You make a profit or you don't, but you have way more control over that then most people consider. For example, the Wii U WAS a profitable system, all told, and the DS is a thing. The reason Nintendo didn't make money for 3 years in the Wii U era is that they absolutely refused to lower R&D and development budgets set in the Wii era. They had enough cash on hand to pay operating costs for 22 years so they didn't really care if they "looked" healthy. Sony, in the same position in 2011 and 2012 with no cash on hand, sold off assets, cut staff, and closed studios to appease share holders and make the numbers look better. If you just look at the numbers, the company with no money selling off every part of the company people are willing to buy LOOKS more healthy then the company so rich it doesn't care if it's profitable ... but it isn't.
And again, always remember TPC, that little thing Nintendo owns that it worth more then Nintendo. The reality is that you're fine even if your system is selling like the Wii U. At no point in time was Nintendo in any danger, they just LOOKED like they were losing money because they had a high burn rate (which is the market word for how fast you spend money you don't have to, ie, that isn't part of operating costs). This is the same reasons companies like BOSE and UBER have never really recorded a profit but are still super successful. They just burn all their excess revenue in R&D or expanding.
There is no "lack of games" on the Switch. There are 3925 games on the platform, and while sure, you might not be able to play COD and some other games (EA is porting games to the Switch by the way ... NFS, they make a "light" version their sports titles, PvZ, to name a few), you also can't play BOTW unless you buy a switch. They have a fair number of 3rd party exclusives. It's OK to not have every game on your platform, and given how 4 of the top 10 rated games of all time are Nintendo exclusives (including a switch exclusive) and exactly zero of the top 35 are from EA ... I think Nintendo is fine with the current situation.
And I mean ... they made 800% target revenue last year. If the only thing Nintendo sold last year was the game Animal Crossing and nothing else; no other games, no systems, no other revenue from any other sources ... they would have covered operating costs with about $50 million in profit.
So the idea that Nintendo feels ANY pressure to ensure they have a new hit system or appease 3rd parties is extremely hard to support with evidence. They are rich AF and extremely healthy.
@HeadPirate "SNES was because Super Mario Kart needed mode 7"
That's literally not the reason why the SNES was created.
These are all political answers. Because, of course, Nintendo is always developing new hardware. That process starts as soon as the finished version of the previous hardware leaves the factory.
Also it won't be called a Switch Pro or Switch 2. That's not how Nintendo names their consoles. The name of the console resembles the capabilities of the device.
NES (Nintendo Entertainment System): console for entertainment from Nintendo.
SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System): it's super now.
GameBoy: Handheld game device. literally.
N64 (Nintendo 64): 64 bit Nintendo games.
GameBoy Color: Handheld game device, in color.
GameBoy Advance: Handheld game device with more power (see SNES)
GameCube: Well, it's a cube and it plays games.
NintendoDS: Well, DS stands for Dual Screen, and wait... it has 2 screens.
Nintendo Wii: A console for playing with your family (we) using motion.
Nintendo 3DS: A Nintendo DS with a 3D screen.
Nintendo Wii U: The family console, with a special controller for you.
Nintendo Switch: Well it switches between handheld, tabletop and docked.
And revisions:
GameBoyAdvance SP: Is the closest to a "Pro" version. But still, it wasn't a Pro version. It played the exact same games the same way. SP was because it was basically a GBA second edition.
Nintendo DSi: A Nintendo DS with downloaded games. (DSiWare)
A name like Switch Pro or even Switch 2 would not fit with any of these names. Their (Nintendo) next console will be something called completely different. And might not even resemble the Switch. (Though it will most likely still be a hybrid console)
@sanderev
Well said. That's a great way to show how hardware is always a means to a new gaming experience.
Just to expand on the SP, it was the "Gēmu Bōi Adobansu SP" in Japan, with Adobansu being a word that can mean a lot of things, but as a noun it's mostly understood to mean "advancement" or "progression", while as a verb it can simply mean "upgrade". The "SP", which was said to stand for "special" in English could also be seen as S Plus or S+ in Japan, a common way of denoting something is the best it could possibly be. I think that really supports your theory it was meant to be seen as a "better" GBA, not a new system.
Removed - inappropriate
What do people expect here though? These transcripts are publicly available, they know they'll be tweeted and reported everywhere too.
They're not going to sit there and say, "well we were planning a big marketing campaign but as you asked, the Switch Pro will come out on Nov 17th, same day as Metroid Prime 4 and then a month later Bayonetta 3 will launch. We're working on a Game Boy Mini for Jan 2022 and NSO will be updated with N64 games starting Decemeber 2021. Also the last Smash fighter will be Crash Bandicoot and.... hang one let me get Sakurai to explain his moveset... Sakurai!... Sakurai!...Yeah can someone grab Sakurai please? Oh there you are, get in here and explain the new Smash fighter to these guys. Do we have the Amiibo to show them yet? No? Still working on the stand? Ok..."
Hardly going to let out all the plans and secrets in a public forum that leaves a record.
So are you planning a switch pro?
Sure but it's a big secret don't tell anyone
Like of course its the we continue to improve in x area like the questions not worth asking.
Everyone's just hoping they will let something minor slip
Regarding the Switch Pro question, he actually gave a more honest answer than Bowser 😅
"I will have to refrain from commenting..."
@HeadPirate
"There is no "winner" to a console generation, other then in the opinions of fanboys."
There is a market leader which is what I was saying. I like how you try to classify me as a fanboy though I own a PS, Xbox, Switch, and gaming PC.
"For example, the Wii U WAS a profitable system"
It was not. Nintendo lost money all 4 years with the Wii U. It was the only unprofitable time period in Nintendo's history.
"The reason Nintendo didn't make money for 3 years in the Wii U era is that they absolutely refused to lower R&D and development budgets set in the Wii era."
That's kind of a fundamental misunderstanding with the way companies handle accounting. Accounting has a concept called the matching concept. This means that companies try to allocate expenses over the time that they sell their products.
The R&D expense on Nintendo's books during that time is related to money they already spent on the Wii U. Switch R&D costs would be deferred until the time they began selling the Switch. As such, Switch R&D didn't cause the loss in those years.
Take it directly from Nintendo during that time period https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/05/nintendo_reports_financial_losses_as_expected_along_with_modest_wii_u_sales_targets
"And again, always remember TPC, that little thing Nintendo owns that it worth more then Nintendo."
Nintendo is a minority owner of TPC. Nintendo owns 32% of TPC. In 2020 TPC made a record $170 million. In 2021 Nintendo made a record $6.2 billion. I think it's safe to assume the impact of TPC is minimal on Nintendo.
"At no point in time was Nintendo in any danger, they just LOOKED like they were losing money because they had a high burn rate (which is the market word for how fast you spend money you don't have to, ie, that isn't part of operating costs)."
Cash flow and profitibility for a company are different and I assume you know that. Nintendo was using less cash than they were losing in profit during the time period so it's opposite of what you are saying above. They weren't in danger because they do sit on a pile of cash. But significant changes would have been coming if the Switch bombed because their goal is to distribute money to their investors, not to tread water and just continue existing.
"This is the same reasons companies like BOSE and UBER have never really recorded a profit but are still super successful."
You are just making some of this up. BOSE is a private company and they don't disclose profit. And UBER needs to become profitable at some point. The only reason they still are around is in 2020 they received $1.25 billion in cash inflows from financing activities. I guess they can continue with losses if they convince people to give them a billion dollars a year.
@HeadPirate
"given how 4 of the top 10 rated games of all time are Nintendo exclusives (including a switch exclusive) and exactly zero of the top 35 are from EA ... I think Nintendo is fine with the current situation."
Yeah, that's not my favorite games list but if it's yours good for you.
"If the only thing Nintendo sold last year was the game Animal Crossing and nothing else; no other games, no systems, no other revenue from any other sources ... they would have covered operating costs with about $50 million in profit."
Yeah that's not right at all. The SG&A expenses (fixed Nintendo costs) were $2.7 billion last year. Even if you assume the game was free to develop/ship and Nintendo got $60 for every copy they sold (they don't), they would have had to sell 46 million units to break even. It's a fair bit under that.
"So the idea that Nintendo feels ANY pressure to ensure they have a new hit system or appease 3rd parties is extremely hard to support with evidence."
If you ignore the Wii U, Gamecube, N64, and just focus on the Switch then I guess yes.
@cleveland124
I read a bit, up to the point where you suggested companies never run at a loss due to burn rate because they cook the books. Then I laughed my ass off and stopped.
@BloodNinja XD
@Menardi That does make a lot of sense.
@Bobb To be fair, when most critics on the internet are incapable of giving a balanced review and rip everything to shreds with overblown negativity just to get views, its hard to remember the proper meaning of the word.
@Tempestryke I completely agree with you.
I'm glad we (quite frequently) get to have constructive dialogues with regular NL readers, even when we have opposing views. We don't usually see this around the internet, indeed
@HeadPirate you may know firsthand more about how these sorts of things go (no one should take you at your word that you do since you're an Internet rando; your claims of "sUpErIoR kNoWlEdGe" hinge entirely on this supposed, unfalsifiable authority), but you evidently don't know jack about how laypeople work.
ASSUMING that you truly have this deep knowledge, going around and trying to stunt on random laypeople for not knowing something is incredibly venomous, childish behavior. waving around that you recognize that speaking when you don't know something is a common human failing does not make you any more credible, and it's an underhanded dig at someone who never purported to be some authority in this arena.
it's this kinda cringey, know-it-all nonsense that is bound to make people feel small. there is a chasm between respectfully sharing your knowledge in a certain respect, and being a toxic cringelord insulting some stranger for not knowing precisely how investor meetings work when they could be barely making rent for all you know.
@HeadPirate
"I read a bit, up to the point where you suggested companies never run at a loss due to burn rate because they cook the books. Then I laughed my ass off and stopped."
I never said anything remotely like that. I said if you run at a cash deficit then you need investors to continually pump cash into the business. Works for a while, but eventually investors get tired of pumping money into a company without a return. Here is the definition of burn rate for you:
"The burn rate is typically used to describe the rate at which a new company is spending its venture capital to finance overhead before generating positive cash flow from operations."
Notice the strong emphasis on start up and before generating a positive cash flows from operation. Those parts are important because you can't burn money forever. But you take care as it's obvious you aren't interested in a goodwill conversation but just want to twist my words to earn those elusive internet points.
@TheRealMW
Nice strawman! That guy who has nothing to do with me that you described sounds like a complete jerk.
But if you read what I wrote, you'll see that the reason I was being condescending wasn't that he didn't know something, I even pointed out that we all (me included) basically know nothing because there is so much that is knowable. That was important. You should have read it and took note.
Even more important is the part where I flat out say the problem is making a comment as a definitive statement knowing full well you don't know anything about the topic. I even say why that's a negative, because you end up spreading misinformation that can sometimes be dangerous.
It think it's really telling and an example of everything that's wrong with how empowered the ignorant see themselves because we listen to celebrities and politicians over science. People don't respect experts and think their uninformed opinion matters, or that you deserve to speak and be listened to even if your not educated on the topic. If it's making people SO offended that I said "It is wrong to post assumptions about something you know nothing about and should instead ask questions to inform your opinion" that they resort to personal attacks that completely ignore what I actually wrote, it's a sad commentary.
the switch lite was revealed a month after e3, so if a pro isn't revealed sometime this month then we probably wont see one for quite some time
@Meteoroid there was rumors with some sort of virtual console launching with nso upgrade on switch where you could subscribe to nso and get some snes and nes games like now but be able to buy them in some sort of nintendo rom store for a cheaper price.
@Darkred401 im guessing something like August or September. Likely releasing in either september or november.
However, I think its VERY possible that its being held back for the release of botw2
@EpicFusion47 yeah if it does happen my best guess as to why they haven't shown it is because they didn't want to overshadow the game reveals
@Meteoroid,
As I have said a Switch model revision is a possibility, but anything else is just pure fantasy, would love to be proved wrong on this however.
Removed - unconstructive feedback
@HeadPirate That's 98% right.
Wii U was a decision based on the complaints about the previous Wii motion controls. Devs(mostly western) and some fans decided they wanted traditional controls so Ninty tried to give them what they wanted. Naturally it failed because Nintendo took a chance listening to people who suck in the gaming industry.
Switch was a product that wasn't necessary in terms of needing new hardware for one of their own ideas. It's not much more powerful than the Wii U. And to be as basic as I can it's really a combo of the Wii, Wii U, and their handheld products. They developed it to answer the demand for gaming on the go as not only has their handheld market always been globally strong but more specifically, it's the preferred method of gaming for the Eastern customers, especially in Japan.
@HeadPirate Oh and they like to experiment with R&D, hence the Virtual Boy even though they knew there was no viable market for it
@cleveland124 Some time ago it was mentioned that Nintendo had been losing money ever since the SNES. It isn't to say they were in a bad deficit, just that although each system was profitable (except Wii U) they all had been sold at a loss. Switch is the first time they didn't sell at a loss. The company itself however is 100000% profitable apparently because those shareholders aren't going anywhere! 🤣
I don't understand why people are criticizing Furukawa for being a "corporate drone". There's no reason for Nintendo to divluge behind the scenes WIP stuff to their public investors. Personally I feel like the question about NSO was only to see how much more Nintendo can charge for online services, so they can squeeze every penny out of the company and customers as they can. Investors should not have any input on how a company is run, unless it's seriously on the wrong path.
Furukawa is the best video game company president in history
@fafonio yes but if the remakes sell good there might be a resurgence in the franchise
Ahh yes it won't be a switch 2 or a switch pro but the Super Nintendo Switch. now that makes sense.
@Double-L that’s true and Im happy that at least the franchise will get some revival … even if it’s a remake…. I’ll buy it because I love some Advance Wars…
Id rather have one Advance Wars than 3 Fire Emblems, tbh
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