What now, Nintendo?

Nintendo did something last year that it hadn’t done
before. It lost more than $500 million.

The company is struggling with sluggish sales on the Wii
and mediocre sales on its new 3DS, but Geekwire’s
Todd
Bishop says Nintendo has been in this spot before.

“People have counted Nintendo out before,” Bishop told
MyNorthwest.com. “If you look at the Game Cube, it did
not do super well, and then Nintendo came out and they
just changed things completely with the Wii.”

The company is banking the Wii U will get them back into
the black. Bishop also said Nintendo must find a way to go
hands-free with its consoles to stay relevant and compete
with industry leading Microsoft. He believes the company
should get some of its most-marketable products, like
Mario and Zelda, on mobile apps.

So what does this mean for Microsoft? Bishop said it
should serve as a cautionary tale that the gaming industry
is fickle and being on top today is no guarantee for
tomorrow.

“In some ways, this is a lesson for Microsoft to make
sure that they keep the X-Box and the Kinect cutting
edge,” he said.