“But, but, but... Nintendo is dying!” My foot. The Big 'N' has been trudging through the negative press all throughout 2013 as signs of doom and gloom hung hung low and dour from the soapbox shacks where pundits and media “insiders” claimed that Nintendo was finished, that the Wii U was their demise, that smartphones have destroyed the handheld market. Well, if all of that were true, what does that say about Sony?
The UK's Metro has a very telling article about the state of the corporate wars (it kind of extends beyond just console wars) and it's hilarious that the company that so many people have trashed over each and every generation is now worth more than the loved-more-than-ever-before Sony. That's right, investors, stockholders, the general market now values Nintendo higher than all of Sony.
Metro reports that Sony is worth $17.7 billion, thanks mostly to their failing movie, music and laptop division. Sony does have the PS4 to thank for a lot of their success lately as it's been trailblazing through the market like a Skyline running on jet fuel. Nintendo, alternatively, is worth $18.4 billion, thanks to their timeless games and uniquely designed hardware.
Yes, Nintendo is worth $700 million more than Sony. That's like the entire fiscal sales period of an Assassin's Creed game, or a little under the first-day sales of a Grand Theft Auto game.
Impressive.
A lot of the moving and shaking of Nintendo's stock comes through the recent transition from mainland China lifting the ban on home consoles.
There's a lot of strong sales potential for many of the big three to be had by selling their products to a potential billion customers.
In addition to this, there has also been a lot of talk from said market analysts and pundits claiming that Nintendo is becoming a third-party supporter because otherwise they'll be consumed by smartphones in 2016. Of course, a lot of these guys can't actually tell their anus from their own puckered lips and have a hard time gauging trends in markets they don't understand.
The reality is that if Nintendo decided to go third-party and make some of their exclusive brands on other systems the brands themselves would lose all valuation. This would mostly be due to the fact that – much like the whored out Sonic – you'll be able to get Mario and Pokemon games from anywhere, thus their prestige and presence in the market becomes devalued. Of course, investors and stockholders don't think like that and are only concerned with “a billion smartphone owners = a billion software sales” and that's really not how it all works.
Nevertheless, with the Wii U making a huge comeback, the 3DS is currently the best selling gaming platform on the market and Nintendo having an extremely strong 2014 line-up (even stronger than both Microsoft and Sony combined) I would guess that the ban lift on consoles in China could help Nintendo soar to new heights in 2014.
(Main image courtesy of Newgrounds.com)
