Namco Bandai and small companies such as Broccoli and Nihon Falcom were labeled as more powerful than Nintendo, which Toyo Keizai says has not grown.
Nintendo plummeted to 1,647th out of 2,000 Japanese companies ranked in Japan’s business and economy magazine Toyo Keizai. Namco Bandai, Broccoli, Nihon Falcom, Capcom, and Tecmo Koei all improved their scores from last year, leaving traditional powerhouses like Nintendo tumbling to the near-bottom of the list this year.
Toyo Keizai ranks the top 2,000 corporations according to four parameters: growth, profitability, safety, and scale. Each of the four parameters are added together to get the highest score. The lowest score possible in a single parameter is 500 with 1,000 being the maximum. Namco Bandai placed 126th overall out of the 2,000 companies listed, scoring 881 in growth, 807 in profitability, 973 in safety, and 644 in scale. Of the Japanese game companies ranked, Namco Bandai ranked the highest.
Most interesting to note is how Nintendo fell from its position of 219th last year to 1,647th this year. The company has been struggling to meet hardware sales as the Wii U has fallen short of expectations and is reconsidering its business structure. Nintendo got a near-perfect safety rating at 998 with average scores in profitability and scale, but the lowest possible score in growth.
Similarly, Sony dropped in its placement, but not nearly as far as Nintendo did. Ranked 163rd last year, Sony is now 292nd and got a perfect score in scale. It received average scores in profitability and safety but only a 673 in growth.
Broccoli, a small company that publishes anime-related games, was just behind Namco Bandai at 157th with high scores in growth and safety. Nihon Falcom, Ys and The Legend of Heroes publisher, also made the top 200. Placing 173rd, the company received good scores in growth, profitability, and safety, but it scored only a 556 in scale.
Nintendo will have to rethink how it does business. Despite releasing games that were well-received last year (Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds), and a handheld system that sold well, its Wii U hardware has still not caught on. It’s not surprising that it received the lowest score in growth.
Source: Toyo Keizai (Japanese) via Dual Shockers
