Nintendo shares drop 83% in under four years

Investors have reacted negatively to Nintendo’s Tokyo 3DS showcase, with the company’s share price falling five per cent overnight.

Nintendo yesterday unveiled a host of new 3DS goodies, including a new Pink console SKU for Japan and a Red model for Europe. Key titles such as Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7 were also dated, and the surprise circle pad add-on was priced and dated.

But Reuters reports that analysts and investors felt the line-up as lacklustre and largely irrelevant in the face of cheap or free games played on the likes of Apple’s iPhone andiPadand Google-powered Android devices”.

Nintendo’s share price closed at 12,290 last night. This represents a colossal 83 per cent drop in value from the company’s all-time high of 70,500 in November 2007.

Its shares have lost 50 per cent of their value in 2011.

However, it is higher than the all-time low of 8,180 from May 2003 and also up from the recent 10,860 posted just last month.

"I don’t think the new games will make any difference," Ichiyoshi Investment’s chief fund manager Mitsushige Akino stated.

"Nintendo succeeded by pulling in people who weren’t gamers and their needs now are no longer being filled by Nintendo, they are happy playing games on their mobile phones.”

Myojo Asset Management CEO had an even sterner warning, claiming Nintendo should withdraw from the portable games space altogether.

"The only possible way for Nintendo to revive would be to stop concentrating on mobile games and switch to Wii-type games for the whole family,” he stated However, at the moment, I can’t see this change coming."