Investors have been steadily bailing on their Nintendo stock (NTDOY) since the E3 conference, and although yesterday saw a slight increase in price, the damage has already been done.
The evening following Nintendo’s (second) press conference, where Reggie Fils-Aime discussed the future of the Wii U and Nintendo as a company, Nintendo’s stock closed at $14.87. Since then, it has seen a decline of $1.25 – about 8.5% of the original share price.
Here are the daily closings:
June 5: $14.87
June 6: $14.52
June 7: $13.98
June 8: $13.75
June 11: $13.44
June 12: $13.62
Tuesday, June 12th marked the first increase for Nintendo in over a week. Fairly dismal. So regardless of how anyone feels Nintendo faired in the “E3 Conference Wars,” investors have made their opinion quite clear.
There are a lot of reasons investors could feel Nintendo is making a poor decision with the Wii U. Originally, the Wii appealed to everyone, adults and children alike, but that accessibility doesn’t seem as present in the Wii U. Criticized for ignoring hardcore gamers, Nintendo has shifted their focus to that sect, and effectively isolated the market that made the Wii so profitable. This change in core target audience is a very dangerous move for Nintendo and isn’t even the biggest mistake they have made.
Nintendo has done a lot of talking since the announcement of the Wii U with little action to back up their words, and this last press conference seems to have been the straw that broke the investors’ backs. Many of the titles that will be launched on the Wii U are not console-exclusives and will actually see prior releases to the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Why would I want to spend money on a new console to play a game that already runs on a system I’ve had for seven years? Right now Nintendo is asking quite a lot of consumers and the future is looking somewhat grim for the new console.
Gamers BUY Nintendo systems for the games they can’t get elsewhere, but first-party triple-A titles are few and far between for the Wii U. Investors wanted to see blockbuster titles that would move the Wii U to the top of every birthday and xmas wish list, but Nintendo didn’t deliver.
With every week that passes, the Wii U is looking more and more like a failure to launch. New consoles are supposed to strike excitement in the heart of gamers, but Nintendo is simply missing the mark.
