Shameful Human of the Week: Mike Hickey

Finding an image of Mike for this week’s Shameful Human was a difficult task, so you’ll just have to live with the little thumbnail to the right. At least there is joy in staring at that mysterious robot claw that seems to be reaching up at him, and imagining it is some unfortunate victim being held down by Hickey’s repressive boot.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey is still in denial that Nintendo has fully won this generation’s console war, and insists the company needs to enter panic mode in order to have a chance against its competitor’s knock-offs. Hickey recently stated:

We believe Nintendo needs to cut the price of their console from $200 to $150 immediately, as they should establish as meaningful of an installed base as possible before the Natal and Arc are introduced.

That’s funny, I thought Nintendo had already established a meaningful installed base when they sold as many consoles as their two competitors combined.

Hickey’s lunacy didn’t end by assuming he knew how to run the world’s most successful video game company, he’s also tricked himself into believing the “fad” of Nintendo’s dominance might soon be ending. He predicts:

We remain optimistic for near term PS3 and 360 market growth opportunities… We expect continued market weakness through ’10 for Nintendo related products, as the Wii cycle fades meaningfully and the DS platform faces considerable competition from Apple related mobile gaming devices.

I suppose Wii and DS sales may fade in the upcoming year, although that does tend to happen when video game systems begin to reach a certain saturation point. Note Hickey’s language, “market weakness” is simply a nonsensical way of talking about a company which outsold its competition at a nearly 2:1 margin just two months ago.

Why is it that analysts and so-called experts still insist on predicting Nintendo’s doom, even as the company’s victory march continues? None of them foresaw this walloping coming, maybe they want to will their original guesses into existence.

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