Is Nintendo doomed? Not likely. Just take a look at how much money it's got in the bank

Mario maker has got muchos moolah

Words: GamesRadar_MattCundy on February 13, 2012

Fiscal projections. Capital budgeting. Shareholder investment. Yadda yadda yadda. Unless you like accounts and annual reports and stock markets and banks and all that, the world of corporate finance is really boring. But not today. Check this out for a completely not boring financial fact about Nintendo: Nintendo has £6.7 ($10.5) billion in the bank and, even if making big losses every year, that considerable nest egg would keep the company going until 2052. That's, like, 40 years away.

Above: Nintendo big boss Satoru Iwata and a big bag of money

Here's the exact quote taken from a feature in the latest issue of the UK's Nintendo Gamer magazine: "Buried in reams of financial data is the revelation that Nintendo have 812.8 billion Yen (£6.7/$10.5 billion) in the bank - enough for it to take a 20 billion Yen loss (£163/$257 million) every year until 2052. Then there's almost 469 billion Yen (£3.8/$6.0 billion) held in premises, equipment and investments. When that runs out - we're in the year 2075 by this point - they've got some of the most valuable intellectual property in gaming to sell off before the company goes out of business."

Taking all of those exciting numbers into account, even if the worse case scenario happens and assuming Nintendo continues to release, on average, three new Mario games a year - we've still got... 189 new Mario games ahead of us. Also, there's a pretty good chance that we'll get another F-Zero at some point within that timeframe.

So Wii sales may be plummeting like a lemming, 3DS needed a hefty price cut to counter sluggish sales and generally things have been looking a bit bleak for some time, but don't be hasty predicting the end for Nintendo. Even if it all goes properly down the toilet for the Japanese behemoth, it's got more than enough stashed away for a rainy day. In fact, it's got enough for 22,995 rainy days.

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Platforms:

3DS, Wii, Wii U, DS

Topics:

Nintendo

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jmcgrotty - February 14, 2012 4:33 a.m.

Always love people who have no understanding of finances trying to explain why this is a good thing. Trust me, that amount of money in the bank is NOT indicative of the health of a company. For example, AMD has $2 1/2 billion in the bank and short-term investments, but no one would ever consider them a healthy company... to the extent that last quarter, they lost $177 million. (and will be even uglier when Ivy Bridge kicks their ass) I'm not trying to say that Nintendo is on the verge of an utter financial collapse (though they better realize soon they need to quit making -- well, trying to make. They haven't had a new console since 2001 -- consoles ASAP), but this article doesn't put the numbers in a real-world prespective.
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smashbrolink - February 25, 2013 4:09 p.m.

Yeaaahhhhhh, no. I'm sorry, but Nintendo has NOT made horrible consoles since 2001. You're only saying that because you didn't want something less powerful than the absolute best a console could reasonably afford to put into it. That, or you didn't want to be caught dead playing "a kiddie console" even though you'd have loved to play the games on it. Nintendo is more than healthy right now. You're just downplaying their recent financial straits. Sony and Microsoft have taken far heavier losses yet I don't hear anyone here saying that they'll drop out, and that's because they just damn well won't. None of the big three will. They've got good consoles backing them and enough capital to keep them afloat for decades to come, that includes Nintendo.
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Facelord - April 16, 2013 10:20 p.m.

You think that Nintendo's "just barely as good as the last-gen offerings" systems are made with "reasonably affordable" in mind? Haha, no, not how it works. Their systems are disgustingly mediocre. It's not that they "aren't playing the hardware arms race," it's that they're not even trying to keep up. At all. Even a little. I grew up with Nintendo's consoles, I stuck with them even through the mediocre Wii, but when I got the 3DS and it left me with complete and utter disappointment, I decided I'm done, it's over, my love affair with Nintendo was just a sham at that point. Nintendo gave up on providing their consumers with a good end-user experience. They are perpetually last-gen, all because they are frugal, yet their products don't offer as much value as the competition at similar price points. They might be able to use monopolistic tactics to fight off the competition (like how they almost certainly paid off Capcom for Monster Hunter exclusivity), but that doesn't fix the underlying problem. Nintendo may have gotten lucky with the Wii and the DS, but their casual gold mine is all over smartphones and tablets and they've alienated their core market. I hope they either go third-party, so their development teams have better hardware to make games for and they have a larger base of potential customers, or that they at least replace their mediocre abominations, the 3DS and Wii U, with decent hardware. Until then, they can forget about my dollar vote, and the dollar vote of anyone else who wants quality products for their money and don't become complacent with the sight of a Nintendo logo.
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Ravenbom - February 13, 2012 4:12 p.m.

So, basically too big to fail? Why does that sound familiar? Still, it's nice to know they'll be secure for a while.
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dekmaine - February 14, 2012 5:59 a.m.

and suddenly politics out of nowhere!
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GameManiac - February 13, 2012 10:36 a.m.

I think I see my money from my 3DS purchase in there. And I'll be seeing my money from the Wii U purchase in there soon.
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shawksta - February 13, 2012 9:19 a.m.

Quite an observation there Cundy, and this is assuming Nintendo does bad every year. The 3DS had a shitty start but it is now held high and got ALLOT coming,and the Wii U can make or break Nintendo's stance but even then they won't be "Doomed to die" People overexaggerate, Nintendo's not going down till Gaming does. A New Fzero? That will be awesome, but who knows, if were REALLY lucky by like 10% E3 might hold what we dream off. Anythings possible now, Luigi's Mansion's getting a sequel, god knows what's next!
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charlie_ruskiy - February 13, 2012 9:04 a.m.

Who gives a crap about Nintendo anymore? When was the last time they made anything original? Or anything good for that matter? They should just making consoles all together and port all their classics to other things. Just my opinion.
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Cyberninja - February 13, 2012 4:31 p.m.

um you forgot the eshop last i check nintendo added an original first party game about 2 weeks ago its called Sakura samurai and a while before that pushmo, also the last time they released a good game was today its called rhythm heaven fever. you can just go back to blindly following sony and uncharted and whatever else, while i go back to enjoying everything and recognizing the success and failure of every company
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LOZ4EVAH - February 13, 2012 7:41 a.m.

Whoa! Makes my 6 billion look insignificant.
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BrunDeign - February 14, 2012 6:41 a.m.

But not my 6 trillion. TO THE MONEY PIT!
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Eliath - February 13, 2012 6:46 a.m.

I love Nintendo. I really do. I miss the old Nintendo. However the troll in me wants to point out that they posted a 70 billion Yen loss in October. Makes those 22,995 days a lot shorter if that keeps up. I like competition. It's what pushes all the manufacturer's to do better rather than shoveling out more of the same. I hope the big N stays around for quite a while.
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Eliath - February 13, 2012 6:49 a.m.

Glaring typo is glaring. /facepalm
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smashbrolink - February 25, 2013 4:24 p.m.

Not if they recoup that loss within the next couple of years, with interest.
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Y2Ken - February 13, 2012 6:30 a.m.

Well on the one hand that's reassuring - means they can be a bit more adventurous and take a few risks on things other companies perhaps wouldn't be able to afford to. On the other hand, it might be slightly concerning that they might not be paying as much attention to the desires of fans just because they know that they're safe either way. That said perhaps that's not such a bad thing - after all, it's often said that us gamers don't really know what we actually want, we just think that we do.
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ultimatepunchrod - February 13, 2012 5:54 a.m.

Wow. Good for them for being financially responsible. I wish American corporations could learn a thing or two from how the East does business.
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sirdilznik - February 13, 2012 5:47 a.m.

Are we still really going with "3DS uptake has been slow"? Really? They're in the neighborhood of 15 or 16 million units sold worldwide right now and the device hasn't even been out for a year. Yeah it had a rough stretch last summer, but then it exploded and has since surpassed the pace of both the DS (you know, the best selling handheld ever) and the Wii (little know fact: The Wii won this console generation). As far as Ninty taking a loss last year, Japan went through a MASSIVE catastrophe last year and this is on top of the worldwide recession that is still taking place. Everyone on Japan is hurting (look at how Sony fared for evidence). Plus they sliced the price on the 3DS temporarily taking losses on each unit and are pouring money into Wii U R&D. So yeah, I agree with Cundy that Ninty will be just fine. As far as a new F-Zero goes, do you promise? Please make this happen Ninty, I want a new F-Zero so bad. That game would look insane in 3D.
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ncurry2 - February 13, 2012 6:20 a.m.

I agree. FFS, the Nintendo is doomed trend died a while ago when everyone finally wised up. The 3DS is doing wonderfully now and the Wii U will probably follow suit, at least for a few years.
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GamesRadar_MattCundy - February 13, 2012 6:32 a.m.

At launch 3DS sales were great - yes - but after the initial uptake it slowed to a crawl. Nintendo reacted by implementing a hefty price cut - something it wouldn't have done if 3DS sales didn't need a kick up the ass. Agreed, though, since last August's price cut, 3DS has continued to gather momentum (it's been the best selling console in Japan every week since the drop in price). So, fair dos - me saying '3DS uptake has been slow' is misleading, so I've tweaked the words to be more accurate.
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MCN2011 - February 13, 2012 5:46 a.m.

Do you reckon they'd lend me a tenner until payday?
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