Game analyst Michael Pachter hasn’t been a favorite with Nintendo fans over the past few years. He has consistently criticized Nintendo’s financial decisions and its management, but now he offers some explanation as to why. But in good old Pachter fashion, he also adds a few more zingerz towards the company, saying that Microsoft and Sony are “destroying Nintendo”.
Here’s what he had to say about Nintendo and the competition:
“I don’t hate Nintendo, but my job is to help investors make decisions about stocks. Nintendo has ¥8000 in cash per share and the stock trades at ¥9600. It used to trade at ¥63,000. The equity has declined in value by $80 billion. That’s why I’ve been critical.”
He is right about that part — Nintendo’s stock and value has declined sharply over the past few years. Pachter also commented on Nintendo’s management, praising Reggie Fils-Aime and criticizing Satoru Iwata, whom he calls “oblivious”.
“He [Reggie] is excellent at his job, and I think he does a phenomenal job with the cards he has been dealt. He is a first class human being, and I am better for knowing him. Mr. Iwata seems oblivious to the fact that fully half of the historical market for handheld games is a casual consumer, and they are increasingly shifting to mobile and tablet gaming and away from dedicated handheld consoles.”
Pachter added that the 3DS is “a great device” but it just can’t compete with all the free to play games that are on mobile devices these days. Finally, Pachter says that his comments about Nintendo “aren’t hateful”, and that he’d love for all three platform holders (Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony) to succeed.
Just yesterday, Pachter predicted that Nintendo will cut the Wii U price by $50 in 2013.
