Late last month, Nintendo signaled that for the first time in more than 30 years it was posting an annual loss — of $845 million — something that until recently had seemed virtually impossible.

For three decades, Nintendo has been the company people associate with video games. And during the last few years, Nintendo expanded that notion to a wider audience than ever before with risky and innovative game machines, such as the Nintendo DS and the Wii. So, what has changed? Why are things suddenly difficult for the iconic game company?

During these past 30 years Nintendo has basically held a winning lottery ticket, which paid off year by year. Even after the failure of the headache-inducing Virtual Boy console in 1995, and the disappointing sales of its Game Cube console in the early 2000s, Nintendo never posted an annual loss.