华尔街日报- 任天堂与索尼和微软的区别 The Economics of WSJ

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This is what Nintendo originally was.

这就是任天堂最初的样子。

Yes, it was a playing card company.

是的，它是一家扑克牌公司。

And this is Nintendo today.

这是今天的任天堂。

"It's-a Me, Mario!" Consoles, theme parks, even movies.

“是我，马里奥！”主机，主题公园，甚至还有电影。

So, what has driven the $44 billion empire?

那么，是什么推动了这个 440 亿美元的帝国呢？

This is "The Economics of Nintendo." Nintendo is different from its competitor's, Sony and Microsoft.

本期视频是关于任天堂的经济学。任天堂不同于它的竞争对手索尼和微软。

Thanks, in part, to its low-cost hardware.

这在一定程度上要归功于其低成本的硬件。

Microsoft's Xbox makes no profit on its hardware.

微软的 Xbox 在硬件上没有什么盈利。

Consoles are actually sold at a loss in the market.

主机在市场上实际上是亏本销售的。

So when somebody goes and they buy an Xbox at their local retailer, we're subsidizing that purchase somewhere between a hundred and $200 with the expectation that we will recoup that investment over time through accessory sales and storefront.

因此，当有人去当地的零售商那里购买 Xbox 时，我们会为他们提供 100 到 200 美元的补贴，期望随着时间的推移，我们会通过配件销售和店面营业来收回投资。

And Sony only recently began to make a profit on the PlayStation 5.

索尼直到最近才开始在 PS5 上盈利。

Then there's Nintendo.

然后就有了任天堂。

The technology is usually five or six years behind in terms of state of the art.

就技术水平而言，其技术通常落后五到六年。

But that means that they're cheaper to produce and that means that Nintendo is much, much more profitable on their hardware business.

但这意味着它们的生产成本更低，这意味着任天堂在硬件业务上的利润要高得多。

About half of Nintendo's profit in 2022 came from hardware sales.

任天堂 2022 年约一半的利润来自硬件销售。

They've dominated the market when it comes to handheld consoles.

他们已经主导了掌机市场。

One of its big successes, the Game Boy, launched in 1989.

该公司最大的成功之一是 1989 年推出的 Game Boy。

Nintendo was really early to the party with handheld.

任天堂很早就开始提供掌机游戏了。

They're kind of credited with inventing the console, although they were probably third or fourth.

他们被认为是主机的发明者，尽管他们可能是第三或第四名。

The Game Boy had a longer battery life compared to some of its competitors.

与一些竞争对手相比，Game Boy 的电池续航时间更长。

Four shades of gray, nuanced gameplay, and had Tetris, one of the top-selling video games of all time.

四种灰色色调，细致入微的游戏玩法，还有俄罗斯方块——有史以来最畅销的电子游戏之一。

Eventually, Nintendo's Game Boy became the third most-sold console in the company's history, selling 119 million units to date.

最终，任天堂的 Game Boy 游戏机成为该公司历史上销量第三高的游戏机，迄今为止共售出 1.19 亿部。

The company continued to innovate, releasing new hardware for its games, from the GameCube, Nintendo DS, the Wii, and to its most recent success, the Switch, with more than 122 million units sold.

该公司不断创新，推出了新的游戏硬件，从 GameCube，任天堂 DS，Wii，到最近的成功产品——卖出了超过 1.22 亿台的 Switch。

You can play it at home like a console on your big screen TV, but you could pick it up and take it on the go.

你可以像在家里的大屏幕电视上玩控制台一样玩它，但你也可以拿起来随身携带。

And it becomes a handheld device, and that's pretty novel.

它变成了一个手持设备，这很新奇。

We haven't really seen anything that's hybrid like that before.

我们以前从未见过这样的混合式游戏机。

Sales of the Switch device and its games accounted for about 94% of Nintendo's sales revenue in it's 2021 fiscal year.

Switch 设备及其游戏的销售额占任天堂 2021 财年销售收入的 94% 左右。

And today, it's the second bestselling game console in Nintendo's history, and continues to be a driving factor of its revenue.

今天，它是任天堂历史上第二畅销的游戏机，并继续成为其收入的驱动因素。

The success of Nintendo's consoles is also due to its software.

任天堂游戏机的成功还得益于它的软件。

In other words, its games.

换句话说，就是它的游戏。

In 2022, Nintendo had 19 first-party titles that sold over a million units each, exclusive to its consoles.

在 2022 年，任天堂有 19 款独占游戏，每款都销量超过 100 万套，仅限于在其主机上使用。

The difference between the others and Nintendo is that Nintendo historically has produced about 50% of all the games sold on its hardware system.

其他公司和任天堂的不同之处在于，任天堂在其硬件系统上销售的游戏中占了 50% 左右。

And the other guys are typically under 10% of the games sold on their systems.

而其他公司在其系统上的游戏销量通常不到 10%。

So they make a small fraction of the software that's played on PlayStation and Xbox, and Nintendo makes more than half.

所以他们只做了一小部分只能在 PlayStation 和 Xbox 上玩的软件，而任天堂做了一半以上的游戏软件。

Case in point, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, release in April, 2020, created higher demand for the only console carrying it, the Switch.

举个例子，2020 年 4 月发布的《动物之森：新视野》为唯一搭载它的主机 Switch 创造了更高的需求。

Nintendo makes games exclusively for the most part for its own devices.

任天堂主要为自己的设备制作游戏。

If you want to play a Nintendo game, like Legend of Zelda, you need Nintendo hardware.

如果你想玩任天堂的游戏，比如《塞尔达传说》，你就需要任天堂的硬件。

In fact, Nintendo's first-party games generate over 70% of its sales.

事实上，任天堂的独占游戏创造了超过 70% 的销售额。

Its best sellers in 2022 were all Nintendo first-party games.

它在 2022 年最畅销的都是任天堂的独占游戏。

And the type of content Nintendo makes is also different than its competitors.

任天堂制作的内容类型也不同于其竞争对手。

Let's keep in mind, Nintendo characters are very cute.

让我们记住，任天堂的角色非常可爱。

"It's-a Me, Mario!" Nintendo is known for making family-friendly games for the most part, so it appeals to a different crowd than some of the other publishers.

“是我，马里奥！”任天堂以制作适合家庭玩的游戏而闻名，所以它吸引的人群与其他发行商不同。

You won't see blood or gore, or foul language.

你不会看到血或血腥，或粗话。

But even Nintendo a couple of years ago dabbled into the shooter genre.

但就连任天堂也在几年前开始涉足射击游戏题材。

When we think of shooters, right, we think of Call of Duty, Fortnite.

当我们想到射击游戏时，我们会想到《使命召唤》和《堡垒之夜》。

They take a very family-friendly approach with Splatoon. It's a shooter, but you're shooting paintballs.

他们在《喷射战士》中采用了非常家庭友好的游玩方法。这是个射击游戏，但你射击的是彩弹。

The company's next iteration, bringing these family-friendly characters to a larger arena and building another generation of fans.

该公司的下一个迭代，将这些家庭友好型角色带到更大的舞台上，并培养新一代粉丝。

In February, 2023, Nintendo opened its first theme park outside of Japan.

2023 年 2 月，任天堂在日本以外开设了第一个主题公园。

And in April, it's releasing a Super Mario Brothers movie starring Chris Pratt.

今年 4 月，该公司将推出由克里斯·帕拉特主演的《超级马里奥兄弟》电影。

It's-a Me, Mario.

是我，马里奥。

That's smart, because that's gonna expose the Nintendo brand to hundreds of millions of people who haven't ever owned a Switch.

这很聪明，因为这将使任天堂的品牌暴露在数亿从未拥有过 Switch 的人面前。

I don't think that Nintendo is necessarily worried about whether somebody who goes to the theme park will buy a Nintendo console or buy a game.

我不认为任天堂会担心去主题公园的人是否会购买任天堂的主机或游戏。

But they want those people to be aware of the Nintendo brands, and they want them to know who Mario is, and who Zelda is, and who Yoshi is, and who Pickmin is.

但他们希望这些人知道任天堂的品牌，他们希望他们知道谁是马里奥，谁是塞尔达，谁是耀西，谁是 Pickmin。

It is risky to start a new franchise, and sometimes new properties just don't resonate.

开发新游戏是有风险的，有时新游戏并不会引起共鸣。

But they have plenty, a very deep library, and they've stuck with that for the most part, and iterated on it and modernized it.

但他们拥有大量丰富的游戏库，并在此基础上不断更新。

We'll probably be playing Legends of Zelda for another 20, 30 years.

我们可能还会玩《塞尔达传说》二三十年。

Mario is probably not going anywhere.

马里奥可能哪儿也不会去。

You know, he's just gonna live forever, and keep that mustache, and keep everyone happy for many years to come.

你知道，他会长生不老，留着胡子，让每个人都高兴很多年。