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Hub You - An Analysis of Nintendo (NTDOY)
I think it true to say that industrial advertising, the sort that fills the pages of the thousands of technical and semi-technical magazines, is the most neglected of all advertising types. You only have to flick through the pages of publications like Bulk Handling International, or Building Services & Environmental Engineer, for instance, to see that advertisers are nowhere near as clever with their promotional work as are their counterparts at the consumer end of things.This is no reflection on the professionalism of the magazines mentioned. They can only publish the material they receive. What it is a reflection of, however, is the belief held by many industrial advertisers that cleverness and creativity in advertising are luxuries to be indulged in only by those soft mass-media advertisers with all their millions to throw away on fripperies. Many of them also hold the view that advertising is pretty much a waste of time, energy and money. They do it only because their competitors do it and it is therefore expected of them.These are fallacies to end all fallacies; and the result of such thinking is tired, lifeless and unimaginative advertising that sells nobody anything. And I'm sorry to say, too, that much of this work originates from those advertising agencies which profess to specialise in industrial-type work.To be sure, it may come as a comfort to an industrial advertiser to fin
While many publishers are now interested in releasing titles for the Wii, there is a new and substantial impediment to successful third party titles. Games will have to be designed around the Wii. In the past, it was easier for third parties to offer titles for Nintendo's consoles, without targeting that console in particular. Now, it will be a lot harder to do that. Expect a few botched attempts early on.
A Long, Slow Decline
Nintendo's position in hardware has been declining for well over a decade now. In fact, the zenith of Nintendo's fortunes in the console business was the NES itself (launched in 1985). It's been downhill since then. Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991, the Nintendo 64 (N64) in 1996, and the GameCube in 2001.
Here are the worldwide unit sales for these four systems as of March 31st of this year:
NES: 61.9 million
SNES: 49.1 million
N64: 32.9 million
GameCube: 20.9 million
That's not a pretty trend. To add injury to injury, the numb
I've been debt-free and I've been heavily in debt. And believe me, debt-free is a whole lot better.There was a definite plan to get you into debt. That was the plan of the banks, credit card companies and auto loan guys. Their plan was to get you started on the road to permanent servitude, and once they got you on that road, to NEVER let you get off.The banks road is full of potholes that trap you into a life of never-ending debt. The tools that they use are high interest rates that just keep going up, universal default, late fees, over-limit fees and all of the other charges and fees that just keep adding to your misery.Did you know that the banks and credit card companies have teams of people whose sole job is to think of new ways to nickel and dime you to death?Don't believe me? Here are a couple of gold-plated (for the banks) examples of how the trap gets set:Do you remember just a few years ago, when you went to buy something on a credit card and you hit the credit limit on the card. What happened? The transaction was declined, right?Not any more!!! Now the sale goes through and the next month you have an over-limit charge on your statement. It's usually around 40 bucks. Figure that stuff into your 18% credit card and you are more likely paying 25%-30%.And if you've been late on a payment or two on one card, are you surprised to find out that your intere
While the Nintendo name is most closely associated with a video game platform (the NES), the company's real focus has always been the games rather than the platform. Herein lies the true distinction between Nintendo and its two larger rivals. Nintendo seeks to make good games. Microsoft and Sony seek to control a distribution channel.
Nintendo is the only company among the three console makers that began life as an entertainment company – and it shows. Microsoft is known for software; Sony is known for hardware; and Nintendo is known for games.
American gamers are well acquainted with the Nintendo brand; but, American investors generally know very little about the company. That's unfortunate, because despite all the attention given to Sony and Microsoft's video game operations, Nintendo is the ultimate pure play video game company.
Nintendo is big. The company surpasses U.S. video game publishing giant Electronic Arts (ERTS) in sales, earnings, and market cap. On the last count, some may argue that Nintendo only has a larger market cap than EA, because its stock price has risen sharply over the past year, while EA's share price has actually declined. However, there's a much simpler explanation.
Nintendo has a larger market cap than Electronic Arts, because Nintendo (the business) is worth more than EA (the business). The run-up in Nintendo's stock price may be entirely due to improved investor perceptions of the company's future prospects as a result of the good press surrounding Nintendo's soon to be launched console, the Nintendo Wii.
Regardless, such an increase in the price of Nintendo's shares was justified by the rather low value the market had previously placed on Nintendo's business. The same can't be said of Electronic Arts. Even after underperforming the S&P 500 over the last three years, EA's stock price remains at levels that are nearly impossible to justify using any form of rational thought. So, Nintendo really is the world's largest pure play video game company.
Nintendo is an interesting business to write about from an investor's perspective for several reasons. The company operates in an exciting industry with excellent long-term prospects. It's more reasonably priced than many public companies in that industry (although that's not saying much). It's a truly unique business (with a unique past), and it has a clear vision of what it is and what it isn't. Obviously, Nintendo's tremendous intellectual properties add to its appeal both as a subject of an article and as the object of an investor's interest.
Nintendo has been a good steward of its intellectual properties. It's been very careful to protect the image of its most beloved characters. In fact, some would say the company has occasionally been too protective of its strongest franchises.
For instance, between 1994 and 2002 there were no new Metroid games, despite the popularity of that franchise. The benefit of such a strategy is that when Metroid Prime was released in 2002, it received extraordinary reviews and sold over a million units. The downside to this approach is obvious. Nintendo effectively surrendered the revenue (almost certainly more than $100 million) that could have been milked from the franchise throughout the latter half of the 1990s.
Nintendo is one of only a few businesses in this position. It's a rare and valuable property that can benefit from spending some time "in the vault". Nintendo has several such properties. For this reason, Nintendo has more in common with companies like Disney (DIS) and Lucasfilm than it does with manufacturers of consumer electronics.
Nintendo is an entertainment company; not an electronics company. Console sales are inextricably intertwined with games sales. Hardware sales account for a large portion of Nintendo's total sales; however, hardware sales don't drive a large portion of Nintendo's total sales. At Nintendo, the games sell the consoles. Of course, the console itself can affect the gameplay experience in its role as a platform. For instance, the console itself is expected to be a differentiating gameplay factor when the Wii launches later this year. Whether it’s a positive or negative factor, we don't know. But, the Wii itself will certainly help differentiate Nintendo's games from their competition.
Third party publisher support for the Wii has been the subject of much debate and speculation. Nintendo's consoles have enjoyed less support from third parties than the competing consoles, because Nintendo has been less willing to work with third parties on their terms.
While many publishers are now interested in releasing titles for the Wii, there is a new and substantial impediment to successful third party titles. Games will have to be designed around the Wii. In the past, it was easier for third parties to offer titles for Nintendo's consoles, without targeting that console in particular. Now, it will be a lot harder to do that. Expect a few botched attempts early on.
A Long, Slow Decline
Nintendo's position in hardware has been declining for well over a decade now. In fact, the zenith of Nintendo's fortunes in the console business was the NES itself (launched in 1985). It's been downhill since then. Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991, the Nintendo 64 (N64) in 1996, and the GameCube in 2001.
Here are the worldwide unit sales for these four systems as of March 31st of this year:
NES: 61.9 million
SNES: 49.1 million
N64: 32.9 million
GameCube: 20.9 million
That's not a pretty trend. To add injury to injury, the numbe
If you love football like I do, then you should know that there are a number of low traffic blog success secrets that you can learn from the NFL.You are going to be absolutely amazed at how much you can learn by just siting down relaxed enjoying your favorite game on TV or even at the actual stadium.To set the ball rolling, football is the sort of game where the big, strong and swift have a huge advantage. So what happens for instance if you do not quite measure up in size? Does that mean you can never be a major NFL star?Of course you can be. But what it means is that you must find ways of taking advantage of your small size. Usually the smaller size means that you are faster or can change direction a lot quicker that the bigger players. That is your edge and so you take full advantage of it and turn it into an asset.Low traffic smaller blogs on the blogosphere are in exactly the same situation. Bigger blogs are able to pick up links much easier. Besides they already have a much higher number of indexed pages to attract traffic via search engines. However the fact that a small blog does not have the advantages of a bigger one but is hungry for success can be turned into a huge advantage that can work for them rather than against them. The really important thing, is for the blogger to appreciate their situation and to act accordingly. Smaller NFL players never go around playing a
Nintendo has a larger market cap than Electronic Arts, because Nintendo (the business) is worth more than EA (the business). The run-up in Nintendo's stock price may be entirely due to improved investor perceptions of the company's future prospects as a result of the good press surrounding Nintendo's soon to be launched console, the Nintendo Wii.
Regardless, such an increase in the price of Nintendo's shares was justified by the rather low value the market had previously placed on Nintendo's business. The same can't be said of Electronic Arts. Even after underperforming the S&P 500 over the last three years, EA's stock price remains at levels that are nearly impossible to justify using any form of rational thought. So, Nintendo really is the world's largest pure play video game company.
Nintendo is an interesting business to write about from an investor's perspective for several reasons. The company operates in an exciting industry with excellent long-term prospects. It's more reasonably priced than many public companies in that industry (although that's not saying much). It's a truly unique business (with a unique past), and it has a clear vision of what it is and what it isn't. Obviously, Nintendo's tremendous intellectual properties add to its appeal both as a subject of an article and as the object of an investor's interest.
Nintendo has been a good steward of its intellectual properties. It's been very careful to protect the image of its most beloved characters. In fact, some would say the company has occasionally been too protective of its strongest franchises.
For instance, between 1994 and 2002 there were no new Metroid games, despite the popularity of that franchise. The benefit of such a strategy is that when Metroid Prime was released in 2002, it received extraordinary reviews and sold over a million units. The downside to this approach is obvious. Nintendo effectively surrendered the revenue (almost certainly more than $100 million) that could have been milked from the franchise throughout the latter half of the 1990s.
Nintendo is one of only a few businesses in this position. It's a rare and valuable property that can benefit from spending some time "in the vault". Nintendo has several such properties. For this reason, Nintendo has more in common with companies like Disney (DIS) and Lucasfilm than it does with manufacturers of consumer electronics.
Nintendo is an entertainment company; not an electronics company. Console sales are inextricably intertwined with games sales. Hardware sales account for a large portion of Nintendo's total sales; however, hardware sales don't drive a large portion of Nintendo's total sales. At Nintendo, the games sell the consoles. Of course, the console itself can affect the gameplay experience in its role as a platform. For instance, the console itself is expected to be a differentiating gameplay factor when the Wii launches later this year. Whether it’s a positive or negative factor, we don't know. But, the Wii itself will certainly help differentiate Nintendo's games from their competition.
Third party publisher support for the Wii has been the subject of much debate and speculation. Nintendo's consoles have enjoyed less support from third parties than the competing consoles, because Nintendo has been less willing to work with third parties on their terms.
While many publishers are now interested in releasing titles for the Wii, there is a new and substantial impediment to successful third party titles. Games will have to be designed around the Wii. In the past, it was easier for third parties to offer titles for Nintendo's consoles, without targeting that console in particular. Now, it will be a lot harder to do that. Expect a few botched attempts early on.
A Long, Slow Decline
Nintendo's position in hardware has been declining for well over a decade now. In fact, the zenith of Nintendo's fortunes in the console business was the NES itself (launched in 1985). It's been downhill since then. Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991, the Nintendo 64 (N64) in 1996, and the GameCube in 2001.
Here are the worldwide unit sales for these four systems as of March 31st of this year:
NES: 61.9 million
SNES: 49.1 million
N64: 32.9 million
GameCube: 20.9 million
That's not a pretty trend. To add injury to injury, the numb
The major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN, allow direct free submission of websites to their search directories for indexing, but even after submission sometimes your website takes several weeks or months to get fully indexed.Search Engine submission is not the only way to get your website indexed. There are some simple and quicker avenues of getting your site indexed in all major search engines even without submitting your site in search engines.Following are some useful steps to get your website indexed in all major search engines -1. Submit your website thematic link in free link submission directories which have PR 3 or above.2. Submit your website into appropriate category of free directories to get indexed and get targeted traffic.3. Use keyword rich anchor text link for submission, rather than your website name.4. Submit articles with proper anchor text in free articles submission sites like http://www.ezinearticles.com.5. Use unique and keyword rich Meta Tags for your website pages.6. Create 5–6 content rich blogs with proper anchor text link for your website. Update content & ping your blogs, after regular intervals for fast indexing.We need to implement search engine friendly website navigation for better inner pages indexing. Always add content rich text with keyword specific anchor text link in your website sitemap for fast
Nintendo has been a good steward of its intellectual properties. It's been very careful to protect the image of its most beloved characters. In fact, some would say the company has occasionally been too protective of its strongest franchises.
For instance, between 1994 and 2002 there were no new Metroid games, despite the popularity of that franchise. The benefit of such a strategy is that when Metroid Prime was released in 2002, it received extraordinary reviews and sold over a million units. The downside to this approach is obvious. Nintendo effectively surrendered the revenue (almost certainly more than $100 million) that could have been milked from the franchise throughout the latter half of the 1990s.
Nintendo is one of only a few businesses in this position. It's a rare and valuable property that can benefit from spending some time "in the vault". Nintendo has several such properties. For this reason, Nintendo has more in common with companies like Disney (DIS) and Lucasfilm than it does with manufacturers of consumer electronics.
Nintendo is an entertainment company; not an electronics company. Console sales are inextricably intertwined with games sales. Hardware sales account for a large portion of Nintendo's total sales; however, hardware sales don't drive a large portion of Nintendo's total sales. At Nintendo, the games sell the consoles. Of course, the console itself can affect the gameplay experience in its role as a platform. For instance, the console itself is expected to be a differentiating gameplay factor when the Wii launches later this year. Whether it’s a positive or negative factor, we don't know. But, the Wii itself will certainly help differentiate Nintendo's games from their competition.
Third party publisher support for the Wii has been the subject of much debate and speculation. Nintendo's consoles have enjoyed less support from third parties than the competing consoles, because Nintendo has been less willing to work with third parties on their terms.
While many publishers are now interested in releasing titles for the Wii, there is a new and substantial impediment to successful third party titles. Games will have to be designed around the Wii. In the past, it was easier for third parties to offer titles for Nintendo's consoles, without targeting that console in particular. Now, it will be a lot harder to do that. Expect a few botched attempts early on.
A Long, Slow Decline
Nintendo's position in hardware has been declining for well over a decade now. In fact, the zenith of Nintendo's fortunes in the console business was the NES itself (launched in 1985). It's been downhill since then. Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991, the Nintendo 64 (N64) in 1996, and the GameCube in 2001.
Here are the worldwide unit sales for these four systems as of March 31st of this year:
NES: 61.9 million
SNES: 49.1 million
N64: 32.9 million
GameCube: 20.9 million
That's not a pretty trend. To add injury to injury, the numb
So you wanna earn without spending a dime either you want to try testing the water first before swimming or simply you just do not have enough money to spend. You might have also heard a lot of people started on the Internet business without spending a dime and end up millionaires, yes most of them ended up that way but not all. I outline the step by step procedure in earning (with google) without spending a dime. Of course you have to give something before being successful: your sweat and effort; add a little creativeness, passion, and have the right mindset in being successful. Being a Google Adsense Publisher. This is the best introduction of what is Google Adsense (as defined by Google):“Google Adsense is the program that can give you advertising revenue from each page on your website—with a minimal investment in time and no additional resources.AdSense delivers relevant text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content. And when you add a Google search box to your site, AdSense delivers relevant text ads that are targeted to the Google search results pages generated by your visitors’ search request.” You might be asking alright I want to be a google adsense publisher but I do not have a website, this means that I still have to cash-out to maintain a website. This is the beauty of Google. They
Nintendo is one of only a few businesses in this position. It's a rare and valuable property that can benefit from spending some time "in the vault". Nintendo has several such properties. For this reason, Nintendo has more in common with companies like Disney (DIS) and Lucasfilm than it does with manufacturers of consumer electronics.
Nintendo is an entertainment company; not an electronics company. Console sales are inextricably intertwined with games sales. Hardware sales account for a large portion of Nintendo's total sales; however, hardware sales don't drive a large portion of Nintendo's total sales. At Nintendo, the games sell the consoles. Of course, the console itself can affect the gameplay experience in its role as a platform. For instance, the console itself is expected to be a differentiating gameplay factor when the Wii launches later this year. Whether it’s a positive or negative factor, we don't know. But, the Wii itself will certainly help differentiate Nintendo's games from their competition.
Third party publisher support for the Wii has been the subject of much debate and speculation. Nintendo's consoles have enjoyed less support from third parties than the competing consoles, because Nintendo has been less willing to work with third parties on their terms.
While many publishers are now interested in releasing titles for the Wii, there is a new and substantial impediment to successful third party titles. Games will have to be designed around the Wii. In the past, it was easier for third parties to offer titles for Nintendo's consoles, without targeting that console in particular. Now, it will be a lot harder to do that. Expect a few botched attempts early on.
A Long, Slow Decline
Nintendo's position in hardware has been declining for well over a decade now. In fact, the zenith of Nintendo's fortunes in the console business was the NES itself (launched in 1985). It's been downhill since then. Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991, the Nintendo 64 (N64) in 1996, and the GameCube in 2001.
Here are the worldwide unit sales for these four systems as of March 31st of this year:
NES: 61.9 million
SNES: 49.1 million
N64: 32.9 million
GameCube: 20.9 million
That's not a pretty trend. To add injury to injury, the numb
If you are planning a WiMax project in your Township, City, County or Rural Area then there are some things you need to understand about consumer buy-in and about the politics of the communication industry.You see, many people stand to lose quite a bit if you set up a City-Wide WiMax system and you might find the whole project in court. Of course a city government or such agency may be able to make laws okaying such a large project and clearing much of the legal debris and costs.Yet, also consider the need for citizen support and consumer buy-in because without it your project will have a tough row to hoe indeed. This means it makes sense to develop a little community goodwill and some rather robust marketing and a good solid public relations program is not a bad idea either. How can you promote strong public relations with WiMax projects?Well I recommend you talk about the digital divide and the streamlining of systems for education and way young and old will all have access now. No matter if they are rich or poor they can surf the net from anywhere in the area without a slow phone line, fiber optics on the last mile or cable.WiMax means freedom, equality and most of all no digital divide and that is the way you need to play it in the media to get the support of the whole town. Please consider all this in 2006.
While many publishers are now interested in releasing titles for the Wii, there is a new and substantial impediment to successful third party titles. Games will have to be designed around the Wii. In the past, it was easier for third parties to offer titles for Nintendo's consoles, without targeting that console in particular. Now, it will be a lot harder to do that. Expect a few botched attempts early on.
A Long, Slow Decline
Nintendo's position in hardware has been declining for well over a decade now. In fact, the zenith of Nintendo's fortunes in the console business was the NES itself (launched in 1985). It's been downhill since then. Nintendo launched the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1991, the Nintendo 64 (N64) in 1996, and the GameCube in 2001.
Here are the worldwide unit sales for these four systems as of March 31st of this year:
NES: 61.9 million
SNES: 49.1 million
N64: 32.9 million
GameCube: 20.9 million
That's not a pretty trend. To add injury to injury, the number of games sold per console had been steadily declining until the GameCube dramatically reversed that trend.
Here are the number of games sold per console for each of the four systems:
NES: 8.08 games
SNES: 7.72 games
N64: 6.84 games
GameCube: 9.05 games
GameCube
The above GameCube number is especially interesting, because sales of GameCube games in the Americas has been extraordinarily strong considering its modest installed base relative to what previous Nintendo consoles had enjoyed.
The GameCube has performed much better in the U.S. than it has elsewhere. The Americas account for 58.37% of worldwide GameCube unit sales while Japan accounts for merely 19.14% of worldwide sales. In the Americas, the number of games sold per GameCube is approximately 10; while in Japan it is only 7.
While a difference of 10 games per system to 7 games per system may not sound that important, it is a far greater difference in the number of games sold per system between geographic regions than exists with any other current Nintendo platform. As a result, the Americas account for nearly two out of every three games sold for the GameCube.
Nintendo DS
At first, it appears the situation is reversed with the Nintendo DS. Japan accounts for more than 4 out of every 10 sales of both DS games and the handheld platform itself. However, at the beginning of this year, the ratio of software to hardware sales was still a bit higher in the Americas than it was in Japan. That's the case for all of Nintendo's platforms, although the games per platform gap varies from very wide (GameCube) to quite narrow (DS).
Game Boy Advance
Nintendo's Game Boy sales have always been pretty impressive. The Game Boy Advance, which launched in 2001, has sold more than 75 million units and more than 325 million games. That doesn't include sales of the various Game Boys of the 20th century (the original launched in 1989) which have sold well over 100 million units and 500 million games.
The Game Boy has helped Nintendo's financial results, because it has been a much more consistent performer. Taking part in the "console wars" is expensive, time-consuming, and risky. The risks are incurred upfront; the rewards come on the back half of the journey. Having the support of regular revenues derived from the Game Boy certainly doesn't hurt when you're involved in such an uncertain undertaking as launching a new console every half decade or so.
Financial Performance
Considering the industry it operates in, Nintendo has been a solid performer. The company consistently turns a profit, which isn't easy when there aren't other divisions to smooth out any of the bumps brought on by launching new consoles and essentially launching new products constantly.
After all, that is the greatest difference between the video game business and almost every other business around. All your sales are coming from "new" products, even if they are variations on the same theme or sequels within an established franchise. The lifecycle of each product is unnervingly similar to the lifecycle of a fruit fly.
So, the business depends upon doing an adequate job a great many times. As a general rule, businesses where you only have to do one really smart thing every couple of decades are better bets.
Conclusion
Apparently, most Japanese gamers now believe the Nintendo Wii will come out on top in this round of the console wars. That's a surprising and somewhat disturbing finding. If the Wii really is a revolution in the making, I suppose they'll be right. But, I still think this is Sony's race to lose.
What will the price of a PS3 be in December of 2007? Until I know that, I can't predict anything other than a much tighter race this time around.
What about Nintendo as an investment? The stock isn't expensive, if you expect it to win the next round of the console wars. Otherwise, it's difficult to value. There are two big issues: the Wii and handheld gaming.
I'm not convinced there are going to be serious competitive threats to Nintendo's position in handheld gaming coming from high-tech cell phones that are quickly becoming the Swiss Army Knife of the 21st century. I just don't think the three great obstacles of clumsy controls, a lack of focus from the manufacturer, and a lack of interest from the user are going to be easy to overcome. Nintendo is in the best position of any company to profit from handheld gaming in the future. They will face competition; but, they will start with the advantage of knowing what their product is (a game machine).
So, if you are comfortable with Nintendo's position in handheld gaming and you truly believe in both the company and the Wii, it would be a reasonable long-term investment at this price. However
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