Nintendo has lost the core market this generation

[Onimusha12]

This isn’t 2007 anymore, simply pointing to the Wii’s phenomenal sales is no longer enough to justify the console. Record breaking sales don’t give you a console that can move third party software. Record breaking sales don’t give you a console with serious third party support. Record breaking sales don’t give you a console with the games you want.

Most of you who are content with the Wii’s current status are either casual gamers or most likely people who prefer the 360/PS3 as their console of choice and see the Wii as only having to be a novelty supplemental console in order to make you happy. Or perhaps you’re one of those of the defeatist attitude of accepting having to own three consoles every generation to compensate for the fact that no one console has done it right.

For every impressive release for the Wii there are six more on every other platform that can be pointed out; and you can boast about Monster Hunter 3 when it sells as well as Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, you can boast about Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles when it sells as much as the Final Fantasy Main series, you can boast about Dragon Quest X when it sells as much as VIII did on the PS2, you can boast about Tales of Graces when it sells as much as Tales of Vesperia or any of its PS2 predecessors. Until any of that happens, each of these exclusives will just serve as lessons to third party developers of what console not to give support. The Wii has for the most part lost all face with the conventional gaming industry. Third Party games are dying in sales on the Wii. Support for the Wii has stagnated and shows little sign of improving no matter how many niche titles that will be lucky to break 500k you bring up. Right now the PSP is getting more worthwhile games than the Wii and is its greatest threat in stealing Japanese third party support.

If you’re content with the way things are for the Wii, that’s one thing, but to argue that things don’t need to get any better or can’t be improved is just asinine.

Nintendo is going to need to expand its home console’s demographic appeal and third party viability next generation or else they could very well lose what foothold they have in casual gaming as well. Preach the glory of Blue Ocean and disruption all you want, but its only a matter of time before the competition finds that balance between blue and red waters and the value of Nintendo’s disruption as long since been negated by the growing appeal of HD gaming as the mainstay of conventional gaming this generation.

The point here is not doom & gloom. The point here is not to bash the Wii or blame Nintendo. The point is to acknowledge that Nintendo needs to take this opportunity to improve and expand. The strategy of being an “and” console and not a “or” console was, like the rest of the Wii, a means of playing it safe when there was no guarantee the Wii would do any better than the Gamecube. No one is suggesting the next Nintendo console be a 360 or PS3, but there is no reason it can’t strive for more than the Wii or be a viable competitor in appealing to casual, core and hardcore markets.