Looks like Nintendo is feeling the pain from the royal bitch-slapping the Playstation 2 is giving their Gamecube.
NEWS.com.au | Nintendo profit dives 37 per cent (May 23, 2003)
GAME maker Nintendo has reported a 37 per cent decline in profit for the financial year to March as sales of its GameCube console fell short of target.
Nintendo, which makes Pokemon and Super Mario games, earned 67.3 billion ($873 million) for the financial year ended March 31, down from ť106 billion the previous year.
Sales totalled 504 billion, down 9 per cent from ť555 billion a year earlier. Nintendo generated 75 per cent of its sales overseas.
Since going on sale in 2001, GameCube has lost ground to PlayStation 2, the rival machine from Sony, which has emerged the global leader in the sector.
As of March 31, 9.55 million GameCube machines have been sold around the world - short of Nintendo’s goal of 10 million and far below the 51.2 million PlayStation 2 consoles shipped worldwide so far.
As if that weren’t enough bad news Sony has announced at this year’s E3 that they plan to introduce a hand-held Playstation to compete against the Gameboy which has held a virtual monopoly in that market. Right now the Gameboy is probably one of the few bright areas at Nintendo. Wonder how much longer before they pull a Sega and become a software maker for the remaining platforms?
Posted on 05/25/2003 at 11:45 PM 
2 Generations at a minimum. This is all Nintendo knows anymore (a far cry from being a trading card company a century past). They outlasted Atari (at least 2 generations of them), and all iterations of Sega consoles. They’ve been in the console biz since what… 1987? They seem to know what they’re doing.
The biggest difference between Nintendo and the other console makers is the fact that Nintendo isn’t making the majority of their cash in other ventures (unlike Sony and Microsoft). If you believe the rumors, Nintendo’s the only one turning a profit off the hardware sales (MAYBE Sony is, depending on who you listen to).
Also, I do remember reading a quote once from Mr. Miyamoto (sp?) that if Nintendo disappears from the console business, they’ll just go completely out of business… none of this “software only” stuff.