It’s happened every generation since the Nintendo 64. Nintendo releases a weaker console than its main competitors, and loud, rallying cries of “Nintendo is doomed” begin to resonate and reverberate around gaming’s “hardcore” inner sanctum.
And of course, people have beaten that drum since Nintendo released the 3DS four years ago, and the system tanked – until a much needed price cut helped the system gain considerable momentum. The Wii U and its relative lack of success has, of course, also caused the death knell to ring. But there’s a saying that’s often applied to the big N: Never count Nintendo out.
In good news on the Nintendo front, the company’s market cap has risen to the highest levels it’s been in four years. Sitting pretty at US$24 Billion, the company’s market cap has doubled since January. That’s a mind-blowingly huge increase that must have shareholders grinning from ear to ear, and helped renew a little faith in current president, Satoru Iwata. A market cap is the value of the company’s publically traded shares, and shows a general investor confidence.
Why is that? It’s not Wii U sales, which are still in the doldrums. There are about as many Wii U’s in homes as there are Xbox Ones at the moment, but Nintendo’s console did have a year head-start, so it’s safe to say that the Xbox One is outpacing it. The 3DS, and its newer iterations are still doing reasonably well – but they’re unlikely to be the catalyst for the fiscal turnaround.
No, it’s largely because of Nintendo’s announcement that they’d be making mobile games, using its wealth of intellectual property to bring its games to the masses, in turn driving enthusiasm for its console and handheld products. The other driving factor is those damned Amiibo, which fans are tripping over each other to get.
We eagerly await Nintendo’s mobile output before making any sorts of judgements – but one thing’s for sure: I’m not counting Nintendo out.
Last Updated: April 22, 2015
Admiral Chief asked for this
April 22, 2015 at 11:36
Did they sell 3 more Wii U’s?
Ish Shiv
April 22, 2015 at 12:25
So more Wii U’s than games of the PS4?
IAteYourTaco
April 22, 2015 at 19:46
You do realize that you want Nintendo to be successful? Competition is great for those who are consumers. Same goes for most markets, whether cars, TVs etc.
Let’s hope Nintendo continues to do well, for I don’t want to wake up some day and only have 1 console from which to pick
SortingHat
April 23, 2015 at 00:42
A free market would allow Nintendo to die and somebody new to start their own console and try to succeed where Nintendo failed. If Ninty were smart they would sell their IP’s to this person.
A socialist country the President or leader may try to *bail* Nintendo or Sony out and then they will continue to make stupid choices while being protected from being fired.
SortingHat
April 23, 2015 at 00:42
This is where we would see NEW IP’s come into place if the young person doesn’t want anything to do with Mario.
Umar
April 22, 2015 at 11:37
Good to hear, though, I still cannot get over just how badly X1 sold over in Japan, they’ve only recently surpassed 50K units sold. PS4 is well over a million and even though WiiU sold over 2 mil and had a year head start, if the X1 only sold 50K units now, I don’t see it catching up to PS4 or WiiU over in Japan. Crazy.
IAteYourTaco
April 22, 2015 at 19:39
How can you not believe that the Japanese don’t want to buy an X1? It hardly supports the kinds of games they like to play, it’s an American company, and they are living in the country of the home of Nintendo and Sony.
The same thing occurred with the XBOX 360.
Umar
April 22, 2015 at 20:17
My disbelief is not that it wouldn’t sell well, but the actual numbers is what gave me a shock. 50K is dismal.
BrianDavion
April 23, 2015 at 00:11
in fairness even as an xbox Fan, the offering the Xbox 1 has right now are aweful. right now there’s no compelling reason to buy a XB1 vs a PS4
Umar
April 23, 2015 at 07:27
I feel you. I don’t buy into all this consoles wars BS, if X1 had something intriguing I would go for it but Forza and Halo is not gonna do it for me. I’m sure they’re gonna be awesome but I would like to aee something different though. Hopefully Scalebound is gonna show at E3.
Blood Emperor Trevor
April 22, 2015 at 11:39
NintenDON’T #amirite
Pariah
April 22, 2015 at 11:40
My ugly console don’t.
My ugly console don’t.
My ugly console don’t play games unless it’s Sony PS4.
Hammersteyn
April 22, 2015 at 11:54
Wario used to have some pretty good games, haven’t heard of him in a while.
Geoffrey Tim
April 22, 2015 at 12:18
http://www.lazygamer.net/review/game-wario-review-buyer-bewarioware/
Hammersteyn
April 22, 2015 at 12:35
LOL missed that on Wiki
Timmy_The_Good_Troll
April 22, 2015 at 12:19
The low for January was 11.88$, the price now is 21.69$
How on earth is that a trippling!
Geoffrey Tim
April 22, 2015 at 12:21
Geoff maths. Fixed. thanks.
Timmy_The_Good_Troll
April 22, 2015 at 12:22
Only makes sense if they did a rights offer and issued new shares, did a quick search but cant tell if they did.
Timmy_The_Good_Troll
April 22, 2015 at 12:24
No no rights issue, here is the market cap chart, nearly a doubling though since Jan, I would take that.
http://ycharts.com/companies/NTDOY/market_cap
Jabaz_Hutz
April 22, 2015 at 22:25
Currency rates play a huge role in the pricing of ADRs (which NTDOY is one) – the yen has depreciated which helped that gain, ADRs are reported in US currency (nintendo reports financials in yen) – also it’s just speculation, that how the market works. People are expecting nintendo to do well in the future, hence the rise in price now. If you really want to know what a share of a company is worth today, you need to look at Book Value and not Market Value.
Jabaz_Hutz
April 22, 2015 at 22:22
WOW SO AWESOME – you guys do understand stocks right??????????????? It’s just all speculation, there is no real value over the bookvalue of those stocks (Assets – Liabilities = Book Value / shares outstanding = Book Value per share) – people reacted to the news of the company moving to mobile and are projecting their (bullish) speculation into those stocks, hence the rise in price. Also this stock (NTDOY) is the American Deposit Receipt (ADR) for nintendo – ie it’s the only way nintendo can trade on US markets (due to the company not following GAAP). You have to be careful with ADRs because inflation rate is also included in the pricing of the security. For example, lets say from 2014 to 2015, nintendo had no change to its home stock price (reported in yen) – if the yen depreciates to the dollar within that time frame (2014 – 2015 / which it did) that ADR, or NTDOY stock will show a gain – when there really wasn’t any gains at the company. SO IN SHORT, this is your stock lesson and while I think nintendo is in a great position for growth (I am a longtime fan and owner of their products), don’t trade on this news alone. AMEN BROTHERS
SortingHat
April 23, 2015 at 00:37
Actually they are right that Nintendo is doomed but the effects don’t often show right away as they have *emergency* money which they are likely using right now and that will eventually run out unless they have a *Hot Seller*.
Games these days tend to lean either towards mature adult themes or stupid facebook style games. Hell I miss the hidden object craze and I don’t even like those very much.
I wonder if we will ever get good RPG’s like Boulder’s Gate or something along Bard’s Tale again. There is a 2004 remake of Bard’s Tale that makes fun of cliches in RPG games.
SortingHat
April 23, 2015 at 00:39
Big banks will give companies like Nintendo loans to make new games and if the company is failing it will come to a point the big banks will stop giving out loans for investment.
Nintendo is not what it once was. It’s a big corporation now just like MS and Sony which all take loans from big banks and those big banks trust they will get invested back in return.
SortingHat
April 23, 2015 at 00:40
I honestly miss the early days when each Mario game was something different and not a rehash of the last.
Nintendo really blew it saying no to Sony even if they didn’t like the *deal* as they needed Sony as backup. Though at the time they had Rareware to keep the boat from sinking.
Fernando Garcia
December 13, 2016 at 19:51
How is Mario exactly a rehash?
Guest
May 12, 2015 at 05:41
The doom predictions go far before the N64. People have predicted Nintendo’s doom since 1989, when the Sega Genesis came out, which was initially designed to compete with the NES. I believe there is a video in YouTube that predicted doom for Nintendo in the news.
Nintendo has survived for 25+ years despite all of its naysayers.