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Gamerace on 23 January 2013
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NoirSon said:
Gamerace said:

We all know Nintendo home console business had been in a state of continual decline since the NES right through to Gamecube.

Nintendo realized they couldn't win a straight on battle with MS/Sony for the core gamer, so they did something remarkable.  They decided to create a whole new audience.  Their 'blue ocean strategy'.    To this end they embraced the wiimote - a controller that did away with the monstrousity of buttons and sticks of the dual analog controller, that most common everyday people wouldn't touch and replaced them with simple intuitive motions.    They devised games like Wii Sports, Wii Fit and Wii Music - themes that everyone could immediately understand and enjoy.  And excepting Wii Music, but including Mario Kart Wii this drove sales to all new audiences.   Vast amounts of women, girls, 'lapsed gamers' (like myself), non-gamers and even retired folks played, loved and purchased Wiis.

But dispite the success of the blue ocean strategy, after 2010 Nintendo abandoned it to instead release only classic fare - mostly 2D platformers and games that did little to nothing to push the gaming envelope or even provide their new audience with anything to play except for lacklasture fare like Wii Party and Wii Motion Play.

Meanwhile MS and Apple were stealing thier audience with Kinect (which has now outsold GC in half the time) and ipads/iphones.

WiiU was Nintendo's opportunity to reclaim their new audience and dominance.  But instead of following the path of simplicity, accessibilty and fun that made Wii, Kinect, and iphones/iPads so successful, they went right back to the monstrousity of the dual analog controller now with added touch screen and motion and need for wiimotes still, and optional pro controller to create the most convoluted mess of a controller ever.  There's simply no initial enticement for anyone to want to use this.   People will either stick with their Wiis, tablets or their PS3/360s.

In the end it's all about the games.  Wii Sports is what sold the idea of motion controllers.  So despite Wii being about as powerful as a previous gen Xbox, everyone still wanted one, because it could do something the other HD systems couldn't.   At least, up until 2010 when it stopped being unique.

Powerwise WiiU isn't significantly better than current gen system.  So once again Nintendo needs to provide a unique experience, that's fun, accessible and appealing to all.  Else, there's simply no reason to leave Wii/360+Kinect or PS3+Move or tablets with their simple, fun and often free games.

So today Nintendo did something daring and surprisingly out of character and spilled the beans on all their upcoming games.  Nintendo fans rejoice!!  More Zelda! More 3D Mario. More Mario Kart.  More Fire Emblem. More Yoshi. More Xenoblade (maybe) and even a HD Wind Waker.  Okay great news.  If you're a Nintendo fan.   If not... There's nothing here.   WiiU Party and a bit of new info on WiiU Fit is the only casual fare they gave and neither one of those is going to get much more than a passing glance from the casual crowd Nintendo won over with Wii.    On the flip-side, if your a core gamer but not into Nintendo franchises there's still nothing here.

WiiU is a direct return to Gamecube status - catering to the Nintendo faithful with only paltry attempts to win over core/casuals.   Now moreso than ever before, I expect WiiU to emulate Gamecube in sales.   The market has grown and WiiU will get some leftover Wii love so I've no doubt WiiU will outsell GC but by returning to a red ocean strategy with aging IPs and no innovation (touch screens are not innovative in 2012) Nintendo is guaranteeing themselves a third place finish this gen.  


Nintendo Directs rarely ever focus on casual stuff, I mean the majority of casual players aren't likely to be watching anyway.

As for casual games, Nintendo is probably trying not to mine the market. They are leaving it open for 3rd parties with titles like that karaoke game and Just Dance. They have just finished a new Brain Training game that they will release later this year for the 3DS and the Wii U Party is as close as they can get to giving Wii audiences that liked the Wii Sports or Wii Play games their own mini game collection that use the system talents without ripping themselves off.

Ultimately what will determine Nintendo's success would be how quickly and the time frame they can string these releases together. If only one of the games mentioned in this Nintendo Direct or that they reveal at E3 is released this year that is a failure that will doom the system. If they can string together a good release window for these Wii U games and 3rd party titles, then Nintendo could be fine. The fact is no one knows for certain what MS or Sony are doing with their new systems so it is up to Nintendo to secure a large audience share this year to entrench themselves to battle similar to how Sony did with the PS2 which was weaker in power/ability to both the Xbox and GC but its games helped.

 

 

I concur in principal but my assertion is these games largely only appeal to Nintendo fans who would most likely have gotten the console anyway (once these games came out which for the most part we always knew they would).   I am not seeing a strategy to grow their audience here (or even maintain their Wii audience).  If you weren't a Nintendo fan before, these games probably won't change your mind.   I highly doubt Wii Fit U or Wii Party U will pull many casual Wii owners into purchasing a WiiU.  Nor will they convert any MS/Sony fans.  Or any tablet fans.   

It seems more like they are securing their core base - which is all well and good and important - but that base, isn't very big.