Nintendo shares fall 5-year low after announcing Wii U

Are you impressed when Nintendo unveiled their new generation console gamer, the Nintendo Wii U with the rather-odd and massive controller? I was somewhat skeptical about the practicality of this new gaming method, and well it seemed that some people agree with me. It appears that Nintendo's shareholders aren't very convinced with the product. Nintendo's market shares dropped to pre-Wii levels after the reveal of its upcoming Wii U console at E3 2011, and that's a really big drop.

The Wii U is aiming to win back the hardcore gamers it lost with the previous family-oriented Wii machine. Investors are worried that Nintendo is putting too much focus on hardware and ignoring the industry shift over to social networking.

“Although some experts seem to like the new device, I expected Nintendo to move more into the social networking business,” said Mitsuo Shimizu, deputy general manager at Cosmo Securities in Tokyo. “It's a warning from investors that the company should reconsider its business strategy and move more aggressively into social gaming operations.”

Reuters reports that Nintendo shares closed down 5.7-percent in Japan on Wednesday, reaching low levels not seen since before the launch of the original Wii in late 2006. But Nintendo seems stuck to its guns in addressing the hardcore gaming audience this time around despite complaints of a lack of social networking features by critics and the press.

“It's not that we're negative about the network, but if we ignore those customers who don't link their game consoles up to the Internet, that goes against our strategy of expanding the games market,” Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata told reporters in a roundtable. “We are just trying not to shrink our own market.” He also pointed out that the company's hit games had always been social.

The Nintendo Wii U is currently still in development, and is not slated to hit the market until sometime between April and December 2012. Sony's handheld PlayStation Vita, on the other hand, is slated to arrive this holiday season sporting PlayStation 3 graphics and 3G connectivity.
source: 2DayBlog.com