Nintendo--VS--Microsoft

[THRILLHO]

Does Nintendo have the power, money and games to Defeat microsoft like they did to Sega (with a bit of help from playstation) or will Nintendo themselves end up losing the Console Wars? I say Yes Microsoft will end up being the next Sega. But it is hard to tell because they are so new in the race and have money bags the size of Rosie O'Donnald.



NINTENDO IS FOREVER

[GameKinG]

Well Sega was mostly defeated by money problems, which MS certainly has none. Now Nintendo held off sega for a long time there, but I assure you, PS2 was the nail in the coffin. So, ummm, I think the ones that would take MS out of the market would be MS. That is, if their next console doesnt produce the results they want, they may consider an action like that. It wont make a difference to them anyway.

On a related note, Nintendo likely wont be squeezed out by them, and if a day in the [very] distant future comes, they would likely by Nintendo, and Nintendo would go on.

[Bond]

I agree with GameKinG. Sony and Nintendo do not have the money and power to take Microsoft out of the console market. Microsoft will take themselves out if they wish to.

[Rndm_Perfection]

Sega was superior to Nintendo.

Systems I have "used":
- Genesis
- Sega Saturn
- Dreamcast

- NES
- N64
- Gameboy Color


I've owned 3 of each, and overall I purchased more games for the Sega systems because I found them to be much more enjoyable. The Genesis was my rent machine, by far... with N64 behind it. Everything else aside from NES was just bought at the wrong time for rentals. (Where the hell can anyone rent GB games?).

Anywho, Sega was great until they were screwed with money problems. If I remember right, Dreamcast started at $300... too high for the time and competition. N64 was the "better buy". Doesn't mean N64 was the "Better system". Playstation on the other hand....

The XBox has good games and masses of people are buying them. What makes you think (other than a peculiar wave of fanboy impulses) that Microsoft will fall? Even if the games turn crap, they've still got to come out... even if by laxative!

[Yoda9864]

The only company IMO that could drop out in the next few generations is Nintendo. Sony and Microsoft are too big of companies to get beaten out of the game.

Of course, stranger things have happened...

Oh, and IMO, Ninento was superior to Sega, but not by much. Just because you used Sega platforms more Sega Rndm_Perfection, doesn't neccesarily mean Sega was better.

[Rndm_Perfection]

Originally Posted by Yoda9864

Oh, and IMO, Ninento was superior to Sega, but not by much. Just because you used Sega platforms more Sega Rndm_Perfection, doesn't neccesarily mean Sega was better.

Not as a fact, but rather as an opinion. Just as your opinion is that Nintendo was superior. It's the same old situation.

[PuPPeT]

Ok first Microsoft has said quite clearly that Xbox is just the start. Also some people inside Microsoft have also said they do not expect and never have expected to make any money on the Xbox. For an company which is thinking of paying its share holders over 10 billion just to lower it's holdings, money really is no problem at all.

No Nintendo will be the next to full out of the market! The signs are already there they have started to lose this generation already where the two cash rich company’s run off with it. Noting Nintendo does seems to help them any more if RE, Mario, Zelda and MP can’t push world wide sales past Microsoft then what the hell will. The fact is Nintendo is out of touch of it’s markets (only a small core of gamers want to play there console any more).



Welcome to the new world of POPULAR gaming
Gone are the days where being a good game was enough to sale it.

[viruscool]

I dont think you have read the last few posts "PuPPeT". Just because nintendo isnt at the top of the console charts doesnt mean they're not making money. Nintendo are one of the more profitable companies in the gaming industry. So I agree they wont go out anytime soon, i think xbox will be next.

[Seth]

Microsoft isn't going to pull out of the console market.

How many billions are in the gaming industry each year? Microsoft is here to stay.

As much as I'd like to see Nintendo opperate on their own, it's going to be impossible after another 5 years of Sony and Micro breathing down Nintendo's neck. Sony and Microsoft have unlimited funding. They can afford to make mistakes. Nintendo's been a gaming only company for ever so they don't have the financial security of the other two contenders.

Eventually there's going to be a merger or a bankruptsy.

[Null]

you'd be surprised how fast the money goes in business. no one has unlimited. And no one needs to run out of money to see whats happening and decide its best to pull out. could be sony, microsoft or nintendo.

i kinda see nintendo to stop making consoles for a bit. just to try and get the image off thier shoulders eventually. then start up again sometime when theres an opertunity to jump in.

[GameKinG]

I know MS's supposed plan, or at least plan to make no profits seem less like a loss, is to make a stance this gen, and profit next. But if they blow the same amount of money next gen, I can seem the failing to get too much profit. So I think thats what would make them second guess this whole video game thing...

[PuPPeT]

Originally Posted by viruscool

I dont think you have read the last few posts "PuPPeT". Just because nintendo isnt at the top of the console charts doesnt mean they're not making money. Nintendo are one of the more profitable companies in the gaming industry. So I agree they wont go out anytime soon, i think xbox will be next.

Yes but even Nintendo will tell you almost all of the money is made by the GBA and not the gamecube!!!! The Gamecube has under sold big time yes Nintendo has made money this year but how much of that has come from the Gamecube ?????????

[TheGame]

First of all Gekko/Stu... It's not even Mirosoft's intention to make a profit with Xbox. They put it out quite cleary that Xbox is just a tool to put thier foot in the door of the gaming market.... and they are willing t spend whaver it takes to get in.

If they are not even trying to make a profit, how could you count them out?

Imagine if tey weren't about games and were more about Money... I don't thik they woud have purchased Rare or Bungie, Xbox would sill cost $300, and they wouldn't have paid thid parties to make games for them... Xbox would have sucked, and it would have flopped, that should tell you how hard it is to jump in and become a major player in ths industry off of the bat (which MS is doing).

I think thier plan is smart personally... If they would have even thought about making a profit this gen, they would have failed

Do they have the best chance of dropping out? No... why? Because they have proven that they can lose milions and millions and still be satisfied with the results. Nintendo on the other end, is my personal pick for the next thing to drop out.

Why? There popularity is falling, and even with a profit in Nintendo's pocket, a lower userbase hurts third party support, and lower third party support hurts the sales, and low sales hurts the third party support, and s on and so on. They are caught in this spiral, just like Sega.

But can they bounce back? HELL yeah! All they have to do is become a gambler like Microsoft, take some risks, grab on to the next big thing before MS or Sony gets to it... but Nintendo's "Stay a generation behind" attitude will be the death of them if it continues.

[gekko]

TheGame, you're on the wrong track here. The only spiral Nintendo happens to be in is going uphill. Every year Nintendo is bringing in more money. Sega on the other hand, had suffered from Sega CD, 32X, Sega Saturn, CDX, Nomad and Dreamcast. Lots of money poured into R&D, lots poured into producing these systems, at a loss, and they didn't sell well so they never made it back in software sales. Even Genesis never produced a profit for Sega. On the other hand, N64 was not the top selling system, but it made a lot of money. Gamecube is not the top selling system, but it made a lot of money. Oh, and Game Boy just happens to be the best selling system of all time, and isn't slowing down. Big money. In fact, Nintendo has never failed to profit from any of their consoles. Financially, Nintendo is looking good, they would never drop out.

Userbase has nothing to do with a company leaving an industry. If that was the case, Apple with 4% of the PC market would be long gone. In reality, they're not gone, and they're profiting. Nintendo is no different. It doesn't matter how many developers are on board, it doesn't matter how many people own your system. What matters if profits. More developers and more sales means more profits, but as long as they are not reporting losses, they wouldn't have to make any cuts, much less dropping out of an entire industry.

As for the Microsoft situation, they're plan was to initially spend money to get their foot in the door, and then earn it back. It's all the old cliche, don't count your chickens before they hatch. Xbox has yet to make a profit, and that's not what Microsoft wants. Microsoft has their foot in the door, they put up the cash in the beginning to get the best hardware, and many exclusives. That phase is over, it's time to profit. Of course, along the way came a few drawbacks for that plan, including all the price cuts which has helped increase losses to Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division, which posts the biggest losses to the company. If they keep up at this pace, they will lose nearly a billion dollars this year. Ouch.

Now we also have the big unknown. How much is it going to cost Microsoft to develop Xbox 2? If Microsoft takes another large loss producing Xbox 2, and Nintendo and Sony both find a way to make profit from their systems, we might again see soon price cuts, and perhaps another 5 years without Xbox bringing it any money.

The reality is that Microsoft has yet to make any money from Xbox, while both competitors are profiting from their systems. Xbox is continually losing money, and is hurting Microsoft financially more than any other division. Initial losses may be part of the plan, but it's getting closer and closer to the time when Microsoft is hoping to make some money, and Xbox losses are getting larger and larger. You can bet the Xbox division is under close watch, and the people in charge are feeling the heat. Microsoft has yet to show that they are capable of making money from game consoles, and considering how unpredictable the gaming industry is, it would not be wise to assume that next generation Xbox is going to be bringing in large profits.

Xbox isn't going away anytime soon, but right now, they are at a far greater risk than Nintendo or Sony.

[TheGame]

Userbase has nothing to do with a company leaving an industry. If that was the case, Apple with 4% of the PC market would be long gone. In reality, they're not gone, and they're profiting. Nintendo is no different. It doesn't matter how many developers are on board, it doesn't matter how many people own your system. What matters if profits.

I think "money" matters more than "profits"... the more 'money' you are willing to blow to stop your system from floping directly effects how long you are going to stay on the shelf... more so than profits.

DC made more profits than Xbox, but that doesn't mean Sega had a chance in hell at staying on the shelves longer, does it?

I saw in a interview on G4TV that MS isn't even trying to make a dime of profit for both the Xbox and Xbox 2 generations... MS is in it for the long haul. Nintendo is (and has to) think about Making money in the next 12 months, MS is thinking down the lines of "20 years from now we want to own this industry"

Which completly destroys your point of profit being more important than the user base... MS isn't losing money for thier health, they are osing money so people likeme and you will go out and buy thier console and enjoy it so they can slowly take over.

Nintendo is more worried about profit than userbase because profits is somthing Nintendo needs to stay alive... let Nintendo release one console like Xbox and they would have quit financially within a year of it's life.

Don't get me wrong though, eventually profits are important, but comparing MS to Nintendo in profits now doesn't make a lick of sense.

MS is simply gambling... they are betting money, and because they have tons of money to lose, losing isn't even a problem, but when they lose enough times they will have to get up and leave before they throw too much money away... As long as MS continues to grow as far as the userbase, they will be sticking around for a while... if Xbox 2 does worse than Xbox (not financially, but user base wise), well, lol, that's the end of Microsoft in the gaming industry.

MS is playing for mind share and in the end will try to profit... Nintendo isn't playing for mind share at all, only profits.

If PSP beats GBA, or GBA's big brother (whatever that may be called), Nintendo is doomed because they lost thier easy form of profit and thier mind share.

So to break my Post down:

Microsoft lives if: Each generation thier Mind share gets larger.

Nintendo lives if: They continue making a big profit

Microsoft drops out if: Thier Money wasting experiment doesn't work and Xbox 2 is outsold by it's predicessor.

Nintendo dies if: They stop making a huge profit, and GBA is over ran by PSP.

I think that they both may survive... for a couple of reasons.

1) I don't see GBA being completly killed off

2) Obviously MS buying it's user base is working because they are tied with the second biggest gaming console manufactuer in the world in it's first outting. (not quite Psx, but eh, do you really think Psx would have stood a chance released side by side with N64? )

You also gotta take into account that MS won't need to advertize half as hard next time around, and they don't have to sit there and buy out developer after developer again. They also don't have to pay to introduce Xbox live again...

If MS trys to make a profit on Xbox 2, they could, but I think they will still be trying to put more into dominating the mind share... a Sega buyout right before the start of Next gen looks extremely likely imo.