I'm sure you've seen the posts over the past year or so: "Nintendo is doomed," ; "Nintendo should just develop games," etc. Due to the very slow uptake of the Wii U console, despite it's reasonable initial run, many a gamer has proclaimed that the long running Japanese console maker and game developer is all but washed up.
Whether that's the case or not though, there's just no way Nintendo could go under at this point, at least not for a long time, because it literally has over 812 billion yen ($10 billion) in cash. That's enough to keep the company afloat for over 40 years even if it lost over $250 million a year.
That's rainy day money too, not even part of the big development funds. On top of that it has billions in properties and equipment and untold billions in licensing rights and IPs. Imagine how much properties like Mario, Link and Pokemon are worth?
This was all revealed in the latest issue of Nintendo Gamer (via GamesRadar) which postulated that even if it continued to lose money at a catastrophic rate, Nintendo could survive until 2075.
So even though the Wii U still isn't selling well and the 3DS might be part of the last generations of handhelds thanks to smartphones, Nintendo should be absolutely fine. It doesn't have any particularly bright light at the end of the current financial tunnel, but employees should continue to push forward with zeal, knowing that their jobs will be perfectly safe. Especially since the executives have shown themselves happy to take pay cuts in order to show solidarity in the company.
