Gamecube production halted!
 

http://www.msnbc.com/news/949543.asp?0dm=C21BT&cp1=1

GameCube production halted

Nintendo clears console inventory, hints at new product

By Michiyo Nakamoto
FINANCIAL TIMES

TOKYO, Aug. 7 ? Nintendo is to press the pause button on production of
its Game Cube consoles while it clears inventory of unsold machines,
the company?s president said on Thursday. But Satoru Iwata promised
the struggling games company was developing a radical new product to
be announced next year ? however he gave few details save to say it
would be a departure from mainstream gaming consoles ?that will have a
big impact on the world?.

THE HALT IN PRODUCTION will last until autumn as Nintendo struggles
against competition from Sony?s PlayStation 2, the leading console in
the global market, and Microsoft?s XBox. PlayStation 2 has shipped
more than 51m units since its launch in 2000 compared with under 10m
for Nintendos competing Game Cube, which was launched in 2001.

Mr Iwata, who gave no figures on how much inventory was left to clear,
acknowledged that the group had stumbled with the Game Cube console
and conceded that it had made a strategic mistake by not ensuring that
it had a consistent flow of attractive software for the Game Cube.
But he cast doubt on the ability of Nintendo?s competitors to continue
attracting users with games that are becoming more and more
graphically sophisticated and difficult to play.
?Games that are sophisticated require a lot of time and energy,? he
said. As games became more complicated, players were given up playing
and this was leading to the gradual shrinkage of the market, he
warned.
?We are thinking of launching a completely different kind of game. We
are confident that we can develop a product that anyone can enjoy and
that will provide people with a new kind of excitement,? he said.
Advertisement

Mr Iwata declined to provide any more details about what kind of new
product Nintendo is working on, saying only that the company would
make a further announcement with details next spring.
He did, however, suggest that the new console would aim to return the
games industry to its roots of providing fresh excitement through
games that can be enjoyed by anyone, including those who do not
normally play video games.
Investors are concerned that Nintendo has not risen to the challenge
provided by competitors, such as Sony and Microsoft, by targeting the
casual user, which is where most of the growth in games demand has
been coming from.

Earlier this year, Nintendo?s share price plunged on news that Sony
would launch a handheld game, challenging Nintendo in a market that it
has dominated. It was hit again when Sony announced a new
multi-function machine that would combine a DVD recorder with the
PlayStation.
Nintendo?s share price, which closed at Y9,690 on Thursday, is 19 per
cent below this year?s high of Y11,890.
Nintendo?s mission is to develop simple games that anyone can enjoy,
and by doing so bring back those people who have given up playing
games into the market. If Nintendo succeeds in doing that, it might
even achieve sales of Y1,000bn, Mr Iwata said. That compares with
sales last year of Y504bn.

"Radeon350" wrote in message
om...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/949543.asp?0dm=C21BT&cp1=1

GameCube production halted

Nintendo clears console inventory, hints at new product

By Michiyo Nakamoto
FINANCIAL TIMES

TOKYO, Aug. 7 ? Nintendo is to press the pause button on production of
its Game Cube consoles while it clears inventory of unsold machines,
the company?s president said on Thursday. But Satoru Iwata promised
the struggling games company was developing a radical new product to
be announced next year ? however he gave few details save to say it
would be a departure from mainstream gaming consoles ?that will have a
big impact on the world?.

THE HALT IN PRODUCTION will last until autumn as Nintendo struggles
against competition from Sony?s PlayStation 2, the leading console in
the global market, and Microsoft?s XBox. PlayStation 2 has shipped
more than 51m units since its launch in 2000 compared with under 10m
for Nintendos competing Game Cube, which was launched in 2001.


Hmm, take this lightly folks, remember, the NY Times said Nintendo was
going to buy Sega while Sega was still producing Dreamcasts too.


Mr Iwata, who gave no figures on how much inventory was left to clear,
acknowledged that the group had stumbled with the Game Cube console
and conceded that it had made a strategic mistake by not ensuring that
it had a consistent flow of attractive software for the Game Cube.
But he cast doubt on the ability of Nintendo?s competitors to continue
attracting users with games that are becoming more and more
graphically sophisticated and difficult to play.
?Games that are sophisticated require a lot of time and energy,? he
said. As games became more complicated, players were given up playing
and this was leading to the gradual shrinkage of the market, he
warned.
?We are thinking of launching a completely different kind of game. We
are confident that we can develop a product that anyone can enjoy and
that will provide people with a new kind of excitement,? he said.
Advertisement

Mr Iwata declined to provide any more details about what kind of new
product Nintendo is working on, saying only that the company would
make a further announcement with details next spring.
He did, however, suggest that the new console would aim to return the
games industry to its roots of providing fresh excitement through
games that can be enjoyed by anyone, including those who do not
normally play video games.
Investors are concerned that Nintendo has not risen to the challenge
provided by competitors, such as Sony and Microsoft, by targeting the
casual user, which is where most of the growth in games demand has
been coming from.

Earlier this year, Nintendo?s share price plunged on news that Sony
would launch a handheld game, challenging Nintendo in a market that it
has dominated. It was hit again when Sony announced a new
multi-function machine that would combine a DVD recorder with the
PlayStation.
Nintendo?s share price, which closed at Y9,690 on Thursday, is 19 per
cent below this year?s high of Y11,890.
Nintendo?s mission is to develop simple games that anyone can enjoy,
and by doing so bring back those people who have given up playing
games into the market. If Nintendo succeeds in doing that, it might
even achieve sales of Y1,000bn, Mr Iwata said. That compares with
sales last year of Y504bn.

doen't that mean that the console is like ..... dead..... ?

Radeon350 schreef:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/949543.asp?0dm=C21BT&cp1=1

GameCube production halted

Nintendo clears console inventory, hints at new product

By Michiyo Nakamoto
FINANCIAL TIMES

TOKYO, Aug. 7 ? Nintendo is to press the pause button on production of
its Game Cube consoles while it clears inventory of unsold machines,
the company?s president said on Thursday. But Satoru Iwata promised
the struggling games company was developing a radical new product to
be announced next year ? however he gave few details save to say it
would be a departure from mainstream gaming consoles ?that will have a
big impact on the world?.

THE HALT IN PRODUCTION will last until autumn as Nintendo struggles
against competition from Sony?s PlayStation 2, the leading console in
the global market, and Microsoft?s XBox. PlayStation 2 has shipped
more than 51m units since its launch in 2000 compared with under 10m
for Nintendos competing Game Cube, which was launched in 2001.

Mr Iwata, who gave no figures on how much inventory was left to clear,
acknowledged that the group had stumbled with the Game Cube console
and conceded that it had made a strategic mistake by not ensuring that
it had a consistent flow of attractive software for the Game Cube.
But he cast doubt on the ability of Nintendo?s competitors to continue
attracting users with games that are becoming more and more
graphically sophisticated and difficult to play.
?Games that are sophisticated require a lot of time and energy,? he
said. As games became more complicated, players were given up playing
and this was leading to the gradual shrinkage of the market, he
warned.
?We are thinking of launching a completely different kind of game. We
are confident that we can develop a product that anyone can enjoy and
that will provide people with a new kind of excitement,? he said.
Advertisement

Mr Iwata declined to provide any more details about what kind of new
product Nintendo is working on, saying only that the company would
make a further announcement with details next spring.
He did, however, suggest that the new console would aim to return the
games industry to its roots of providing fresh excitement through
games that can be enjoyed by anyone, including those who do not
normally play video games.
Investors are concerned that Nintendo has not risen to the challenge
provided by competitors, such as Sony and Microsoft, by targeting the
casual user, which is where most of the growth in games demand has
been coming from.

Earlier this year, Nintendo?s share price plunged on news that Sony
would launch a handheld game, challenging Nintendo in a market that it
has dominated. It was hit again when Sony announced a new
multi-function machine that would combine a DVD recorder with the
PlayStation.
Nintendo?s share price, which closed at Y9,690 on Thursday, is 19 per
cent below this year?s high of Y11,890.
Nintendo?s mission is to develop simple games that anyone can enjoy,
and by doing so bring back those people who have given up playing
games into the market. If Nintendo succeeds in doing that, it might
even achieve sales of Y1,000bn, Mr Iwata said. That compares with
sales last year of Y504bn.

Radeon350 wrote in message
om...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/949543.asp?0dm=C21BT&cp1=1


Jeez, what a load of propaganda from...oh, the *MICROSOFT*-NBC network.
Man...

First of all, the production halt in the headline is only until Autumn
acording to the article, that's...uh, six weeks away. This is totally
standard procedure for Microsoft and Sony as well as Nintendo (or any other
electronics manufacturer, for that matter) to make a large production run at
a time andf then sit on them until the stock runs low. What, like the
companies are supposed to make a single new system every time someone orders
one?

As for the rest of the article, it seems to be imaginitively cobbled togther
from this Reuters wire article:

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...4CRBAE0CF EY?
type=topNews&storyID=3236829

I'm not even a Nintendo fanboy (thanks for crossposting this into the Sega
group for no apparent reason, by the way), but come on, it doesn't take a
genius to see the **** oozing out between the seems of this article you
posted. I mean, I guess I can't blame a little troll for trying to do his
job by posting it and really I can't even blame Microsoft for being the
shady corporate scum everybody knows they are and managing to exploit their
media ownership to put such crap into the "news," but I just hope the
readers of these newsgroups will be bright enough to not sweat over it and
so not spawn a 200 post thread that I have to wade through for the next
month and half (coincidentally, just when Nintendo produces the next batch
of Gamecubes, apparently).


....word is bondage...

wrote in message
...
doen't that mean that the console is like ..... dead..... ?


No. It means they have too many units in storage and need to sell off the
excess.

On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 08:10:50 GMT, Impmon wrote:

Not necessarily. It could be just too many unsold GC sitting around and
they'd resume production after a few months.

And you believe that do you?

Andrew.

Not necessarily. It could be just too many unsold GC sitting around and
they'd resume production after a few months.

That's what it means, according to the article.

I think that, unfortunately, the CG is on it's way out. From the overtones
of the article and other ariticles that I have read, it sounds like Nintendo
realizes that they really have hosed up the GameCube.

I didn't buy a GameCube because I didn't think that the N64 had enough
support for it and it didn't look like the GC was having any better of a
run. I think people will stay away once they perceive a product (or line of
products) to be in the non-popular / unsupported category. Unfortunately,
this is what Nintendo has done to themselves.

It's a shame because it seemed like it had (still has, but it is dying)
great potential. As much as others have complained about the kiddie games, I
liked the look of their games (I suppose that it seems odd that I didn't buy
it, then). It looked like playing a cartoon - fun.

Enjoy!

Brad

"SewerFiss" wrote in message
...
Radeon350 wrote in message
om...
http://www.msnbc.com/news/949543.asp?0dm=C21BT&cp1=1


Jeez, what a load of propaganda from...oh, the *MICROSOFT*-NBC network.
Man...

First of all, the production halt in the headline is only until Autumn
acording to the article, that's...uh, six weeks away. This is totally
standard procedure for Microsoft and Sony as well as Nintendo (or any
other
electronics manufacturer, for that matter) to make a large production run
at
a time andf then sit on them until the stock runs low. What, like the
companies are supposed to make a single new system every time someone
orders
one?

As for the rest of the article, it seems to be imaginitively cobbled
togther
from this Reuters wire article:


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...4CRBAE0CF EY?
type=topNews&storyID=3236829

I'm not even a Nintendo fanboy (thanks for crossposting this into the Sega
group for no apparent reason, by the way), but come on, it doesn't take a
genius to see the **** oozing out between the seems of this article you
posted. I mean, I guess I can't blame a little troll for trying to do his
job by posting it and really I can't even blame Microsoft for being the
shady corporate scum everybody knows they are and managing to exploit
their
media ownership to put such crap into the "news," but I just hope the
readers of these newsgroups will be bright enough to not sweat over it and
so not spawn a 200 post thread that I have to wade through for the next
month and half (coincidentally, just when Nintendo produces the next batch
of Gamecubes, apparently).

Agreed, if anything can be gleened from this article, it's that Nintendo
*might* be redesigning the Gamecube a little bit and re-releasing it.
Possibly something with DVD playback or maybe even something better. Hell,
if Sony can remake the PS2 into something with TIVO and make new regular PS2
with progressive scan and get away with it, surely nobody will feel "ripped
off" if Nintendo remakes the Gamecube right?


...word is bondage...

"Shadow" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...
doen't that mean that the console is like ..... dead..... ?


No. It means they have too many units in storage and need to sell off the
excess.



BECAUSE the system is selling like garbage.

--

GoodCow =)
http://www.goodcowfilms.com/ ... coming eventually ...

On Fri, 08 Aug 2003 08:10:50 GMT, Impmon wrote:

Not necessarily. It could be just too many unsold GC sitting around and
they'd resume production after a few months.

Um, it's August. This is not a month typical of
unsold-inventory-after-the-holiday-buying-spree.

let's face it:

The thing was always an "also ran" compared to both the X-Box and PS2.
--
Roj

"To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
- Ulysses