U ready, Nintendo?

• Source: Global Times
• [09:56 June 11 2011]
• Comments

Nintendo Co Ltd's launch of its next-generation Wii console failed to address investor concerns that the firm is missing the gaming market's shift to social network-ing, sending its shares tumbling to a five-year low.

The Wii U, complete with a new touch-screen control-ler, is aimed at winning back hardcore gam-ers from rivals such as Microsoft Corp's Xbox and won early praise from industry critics at its launch at the E3 videogame expo Tuesday.

But Nintendo shares fell 6.5 percent in Tokyo Wednesday, the most since the March earthquake, to levels not seen since before the original Wii was launched to rave reviews in late 2006.

Investors said they needed more details on price and other specifica-tions and were also worried Nintendo remained too centered on hardware as the gaming market increasingly shifts to a battleground over software.

"Although some experts seem to like the new device, I expected Nintendo to move more into the social networking business," said Mitsuo Shimizu, deputy general manager at Cosmo Securities in Tokyo.

"It's a warning from investors that the company should reconsider its busi-ness strategy and move more aggres-sively into social gaming operations."

Industry critics in early reviews praised the innovation embodied by the separate device, larger than Apple Inc's iPhone, but smaller than the iPad.

The new controller has camera and video-call capability, plus an array of buttons and functions that might entice gamers who play longer and more intensely.

"Nintendo is ahead of the curve for once," said Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter. "It can do anything a tablet can do and people might be asking, why can't my iPad 2 do this kind of gaming too?"