In light of Nintendo’s financial meeting with investors yesterday, the company’s share prices have dropped nearly 6% since last week.
This news shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been following Nintendo’s stock prices as of late, as the they have consistently been falling since November of 2015, with the exception of some peaks in late February, March, and last week. During this time last year the stock prices were around $21 per share, but as of today that price has dropped to around $17.
There are a number of different factors that have shareholders and fans concerned about the future of the company. First off, hardware and software sales have been stagnant for both the 3DS and Wii U this year. Hardware-wise the Wii U has only moved a marginal number of consoles since the end of last year, while the 3DS is having only slightly better success. While overall the 3DS has been successful in terms of sales for Nintendo, the same can not be said about the Wii U. Overall, Nintendo’s earnings dropped 60% this year.
Nintendo took a gamble on the Wii U and hoped that it would be a runaway success like the Wii was, unfortunately it never quite caught on and now will go down as the worst selling Nintendo home console of all time. In contrast, the Wii went on to be Nintendo’s best selling home console of all time and sold around 102 million consoles.
In addition to poor hardware and software sales, Nintendo also told its investors that its next console, code-named “NX”, will not be shown at E3 2016. Instead the new system will be showcased at a different time and venue later in the year. Additionally it will not launch during the holidays like many speculated, but rather in March of 2017. Nintendo’s show-floor presence at E3 this year will instead focus on the next Legend of Zelda game, which was also delayed into 2017. All of this likely added up to shareholders expressing doubt in the company moving forward.
All hope is not lost for the Nintendo faithful however, as the company has several unannounced projects in the works and clearly has some confidence in its next system. The big question is: Can the remaining game releases of 2016 and the NX itself be enough to stabilize Nintendo stocks prices, and will Nintendo get enough fans on board at launch so it can compete with the widely successful PS4 and Xbox One? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Written by Frank Costagliola
Frank is a journalism student at the College of Staten Island and knew he wanted to write and talk about video games since high school. If Frank isn't on campus, he's probably gaming, spending time with his friends, at the gym, or trying to hunt down a rare amiibo out in the wild.
