At any rate, in many places around the net I continue to hear things along the line of “Nintendo has so much money in the bank that they could probably go another X console generations/fiscal years before they’re in trouble.” And while I’ve agreed to this in the past, and while it is true that “Nintendo” would still be around, I’m beginning to think of the actual prospects of this theory and they’re not so good. If they were to continue to post these kinds of losses, year over year until they ran dry however many billions of dollars they have hanging around, we wouldn’t be looking at the same Nintendo at that point. Maybe current management is to blame for their present woes (they are), but this wouldn’t lead to a pretty end. And so when it’s claimed that Nintendo can “afford” to lose* a console generation wholesale, it’s not really true. The people running the show will lose their jobs (again, maybe that’d be for the best) and aren’t going to play it out as if this is an option, so they won’t. They might fail to keep their jobs but it won’t be for lack of trying because, and despite what many think, the heat is very much on at Nintendo right now.

*Which I think the Wii U is in danger of, but not likely to do. “Another GameCube” wouldn’t an example of a loss.