Bueno el presidente de Nintendo ha dicho que el mercado se esta reduciendo debido a juegos sofisticados y que requieren mucha energía para superarlos.
Y reconoce que no han llegado a las metas del año anterior, pero que se esta trabajando para traer sorpresas frescas, en la que aún para los novatos será fácil jugar. No ha aclarado si serán juegos o una nueva consola.
Aunque no ha revelado el monto del inventario que se tienen de GC, algunos analistas lo colocan en cifras millonarias.
Las metas del GC son alrededor de los 6 millones de GC pero las ventas del cuarto en curso han sido tan solo de 800,000 consolas, aunque se sabe que las temporadas pico (navidad, verano) vende bastante, y sostiene Nintendo que llegaran a la meta.
Algunos analistas se muestran excepticos de que Nintendo se mantenga creciendo ante la dominación de Playstation 2.
Nintendo planea una utilidad neta de 65 billones de yenes (aprox 500 millones de dolares).
Wall Street Journal
TOKYO (AP)--The Japanese manufacturer of Pokemon games won't be making more of its flagship GameCube consoles until this fall because of an inventory backlog, the president of Nintendo Co. (J.NTD) said Thursday.
Satoru Iwata said the game market shrank dramatically last year, especially in Japan, because players were simply getting tired of spending the time and energy required to navigate increasingly sophisticated games.
"This trend is clear to everyone, and the trend continues this year," he told reporters at a Tokyo hotel.
He acknowledged GameCube sales fell below company targets last year, but Nintendo hopes to drive sales this year with new games, including a version of the 1980s favorite Donkey Kong, which was designed with Tokyo game-maker Namco, Iwata said.
Iwata promised a product for next spring "that will deliver fresh surprises" and be fun for even novices to play, but he refused to elaborate or say whether it will be a new machine or game.
GameCube is Nintendo's offering to rival Sony Corp.'s (SNE) PlayStation 2. But PlayStation 2 leads in global sales with nearly 54 million shipped so far, while Nintendo has sold 9.6 million GameCubes.
Kyoto-based Nintendo, which also makes Super Mario and Zelda games, is not disclosing the GameCube inventory, but analysts estimate it to be in the millions.
During the quarter through June 30, Nintendo sold 80,000 GameCubes. Nintendo is sticking to its target of selling 6 million machines this fiscal year ending in March 2004, saying sales generally pick up over the summer and Christmas.
Some analysts are pessimistic about Nintendo's ability to keep growing in the face of PlayStation 2's domination.
Iwata said there was potential for growth in China and other markets where games have yet to catch on. And Nintendo plans to court new players, including women and the elderly, he said.
It will also make more games linking GameCube with Nintendo's popular handheld GameBoy Advance and GameBoy SP to encourage sales, officials said.
Nintendo is forecasting a 65 billion yen profit on Y550 billion sales for fiscal 2003.