Tag Archives: nikkei

Sony’s recent financials highlighted the poor performance of PS Vita and overall losses of 15.5 billion yen/$198 million. Today credit firm Fitch has cut the Japanese company’s credit rating due to its “loss of technology leadership in key products and the strong yen”, and issued a warning that aggressive restructuring would be needed to reverse its fortune. Get the report below.

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A new and larger 3DS model is set to be announced tomorrow at the Nintendo press conference, Nikkei‘s reporting.

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Sony’s initial shipment of Vita consoles for last weekend’s Japanese launch falls about one-third short of pre-launch retailer reports.

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Nikkei’s said today that Japan received an initial shipment of 400,000 3DS units over the weekend, all of which have now been sold.

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Nikkei (via Andriasang) is reporting that PSP2 with come with 3G on-board, as previously rumoured, but won’t allow for phone calls.

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Somewhere, off in an – in all likelihood fictional – alternate universe, Kevin Butler’s riding a golden jet ski powered by fuel made from ground-up diamonds.

Of course, he always did that. But now, Sony can actually afford it.

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Japanese publications have put out first unconfirmed details on 3DS, detailing hardware specs and more.

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Looks as though Sony isn’t the only one sailing a leaky ship to LA. Nikkei’s reported that Nintendo’s to release a new Wii Fit – presumably Wii Fit Plus – and a new Wii Mario game in Japan this year.

There’s no detail at all on the Mario outing, but the piece says that the new Wii Fit title will have internet capability.

We should start running a book on whether or not a platform holder’s presser’s going to make it to the show intact. Only the MS stuff to be leaked, now.

Thanks, IGN.

Nikkei.net’s predicted that Wii will pass the 50 million global sales barrier this month.

He machine went on sale in 2006.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata’s keynoting GDC this afternoon, so don’t be hugely shocked if this gets announced.

Thanks, Kotaku.

According to this Trading Markets piece, Nikkei and Nintendo are to bring out a piece of DS software designed to make learning about the Japanese financial system “fun”.

“The software will be designed so that users can learn the basics of the economy — how it works and keywords for understanding it — by tapping on the devices’ touch-screen panels and answering a series of quizzes,” says the story.

“By making the learning process fun, Nintendo hopes the software will attract young people who are interested in the economy.”

Question number one: The world economy gets the arse torn out of it in front of your eyes, global capitalism is shown up to be a tragic charade and you lose approximately 57 times your lifetime-possible earnings on stupid credit bets in less than eight seconds. How do you top yourself?

No date as yet.

According to this Reuters report, the Nikkei’s reported this morning that Nintendo is to release a new DS this year.

The hardware upgrade is to feature a built in camera, support for SD cards, music playback capabilities, and improved Wi-Fi support. The system’s screens will also be bigger.

The piece apparently said that the new version will continue with its feature of having two touch-screens, so there’s a chance that rumour of a second touch-panel being included in the upgrade are true.

The console will have improved Wi-Fi support, increasing the system’s use as an information terminal, allowing owners to get news and product information at retailers and train stations. Nintendo currently has such a service on test under the name Nintendo Spot.

Pricing for the new model will be below 20,000 yen, says the report.

More through the link.

According to this Thompson Financial story, quoting the Nikkei, both Nintendo and Sony are showing serious signs or moving their businesses into other areas of Asia outside Japan.

Apparently, 20 DS titles are to be release in South Korea this year, and Nintendo “has started providing technologies to a South Korean game developer, which has been working on titles including a simulation game that makes use of the touch screen on the Nintendo DS.”

Sony, on the other hand, “plans to work with Taiwanese authorities to train game creators starting in September,” and is also looking to expand PS3 operations in South Korea.

More through the link.

According to this, KBC has downgraded Nintendo stock to “hold” from “buy” and slashed its 12-month price estimate by 30 percent to 57,500 yen ($580).

Analyst Hiroshi Kamide wrote in a report yesterday that Wii and DS sales in the US and Europe are peaking after “amazing growth” this fiscal year. “We believe that it is reasonable to expect a tougher trading environment.”

From the report:

Nintendo in January increased its forecasts for sales and operating profit for the year ending March 31 for a third time after the Wii outsold rival game players. KBC reduced its outlook for Nintendo’s net income next fiscal year by 8 percent to 391.6 billion yen, DS console shipments by 6 percent, and Wii software sales by 5 percent.

The new estimates are based on an exchange rate of 100 yen to the dollar, compared with a previous assumption of 105 yen, the brokerage said. A stronger yen reduces the value of overseas earnings when repatriated by Nintendo, which gets most of its sales from overseas.

Please, let it end. According to this, the Nikkei is now reporting that Toshiba president Atsutoshi Nishida will be announcing the final discontinuation of HD DVD tomorrow, as well as halted sales of hardware and media by March. Like, within two weeks.

According to that Engadget report, Toshiba is planning to just pull all HD-DVD-related stock off store shelves and make no compensation to adopters. The announcement is expected to be made alongside another piece of news about semi-conductors, designed to overshadow the fact that Toshiba just binned hundreds of millions of dollars in the disc war against Blu-ray.

Can we talk about games again? Please?

Sometimes you can’t do anything right. Despite leading the entire videogames race, Nintendo’s shares have hit a seven month low on the Nikkei, following a general trend in the Japanese market caused by the strong yen and a rotten US forecast. Shares in the company fell 5.9 percent today to (£219.30), the lowest price since July 2 last year.

“There’s an increasing chance that the U.S. will post negative growth in the first quarter, and that’s tough news for cyclical markets like Japan,” said Akio Yoshino, chief economist at Societe Generale Asset Management Japan.