Following Nintendo’s odd E3 press conference yesterday where they announced their new console, the Wii U, shares in Nintendo Co. quickly fell 5% to the lowest it has been in five years, a time that coincides with the period right before Nintendo launched the successful Wii.
The opinions on the new console are very mixed and Nintendo seems to be making insane choices regarding the hardware, and people who aren’t Nintendo that have a stake in the success of Nintendo’s new console have spoken, and have brought the stocks as low as during the GameCube dark times, when it was a legitimate worry that Nintendo would go under and be forced to bow out of the gaming hardware industry.
Though people with a share in the company seem fairly unhappy with the Wii U, a lot of the worry may be an overreaction, not even because the console may actually be the greatest gift to gaming, but because Nintendo barely released any information regarding the Wii U: No official pricing, literally no hardware specs of the console (just the controller) and they only announced one game, LEGO City Stories, a game that could very well turn out fun, but doesn’t have the appeal as a Nintendo staple like Mario or Zelda. So, it’s entirely possible that the lack of information is what is causing shareholders to worry, rather than that they might feel the console has no potential.
Only time will tell exactly how the public will receive the Wii U, and Nintendo isn’t planning on releasing the console for at least another year, so they have time to gauge public reaction and try to clean up their E3 mess. Then again, this is Nintendo we’re talking out.
(via Bloomberg)
