The Death Of Nintendo Has Been Greatly Under-Exaggerated

I love Nintendo. I love Nintendo. I love Nintendo.

I feel the need to say that over and over again to begin with because this post will inevitably be read by some as some sort of anti-Nintendo screed. I know that because every single time I write anything mildly critical of Nintendo, groups of folks reveal themselves that make Android and iPhone diehards look like placid hippies. Those people are really going to hate this post.

But it needs to be written. Both because I do love Nintendo and because if they don’t change course — and fast — I’m ultimately going to be proven right. I wasted so much breath blowing on Nintendo cartridges as a kid, so now it’s time to waste some breath trying to jolt them out of the death spiral they now find themselves in.

And make no mistake, they are in the beginning of a death spiral.

“Nintendo is fine!” “They’re profitable!” The rhetoric out of the Nintendo apologists camp is as worrisome as it is predictable. See: Nokia and BlackBerry (né RIM) as prime recent examples of the problems with this mentality. See any number of companies throughout the history of ever for others. You’re profitable and a healthy business until you’re not. The mistake often made is to think that dramatic shifts in business can’t happen quickly. They can happen very quickly. And Nintendo is in a market that is experiencing such a shift.

As anticipated by some (cough