Wyrdness said:
HintHRO said:
Nintendo didn't mean to make Wii U only for die-hard Nintendo fans, they wanted it to be a Wii 2. Nintendo die-hard fans will buy anything Nintendo brings, whatever it is. But that group is very small, which I think explains the abysmal Wii U sales. The other 140m went to smartphones or PS4/XB1. I think Nintendo needs to regain those core gamers in some other way to stay relevant in the gaming industry. Casuals are in love with their smartphones. They don't have the desire to buy another system.
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Not entirely true they wanted it to be Wii 2 but it was far from Wii 2 in approach, the casual market moved on because the U isn't geared towards them like the Wii was. I'll highlight one example of flawed thinking that most people have when trying to suggest something successful, they always mention the core, this was Nintendo's undoing when creating the U trying to appeal to this group who have been named core by modern gaming outlet's definition. The core group likely already own a Wii U.
Why I say that? The core group by modern definition are actually the smallest group in gaming they buy software more regularly and likely have more than one platform but are a small group in total, a lot of people think the core is what makes Playstation successful it's not, it's the mainstream that does, these are casual and avid gamers (the people who bought the Wii and smart phones weren't casual gamers they were new gamers, casual gamers have been around since forever), those who game on smart phones aren't even casual gamers they're spin off group from the new gamers that emerged from the blue ocean approach. The mainstream just follow what's the in thing to get and most cases stick to that platform for the gen, this is why Vita couldn't hold a candle to the 3DS as well.
On the Wii U it was never Wii 2 from the start in it's approach, it was more GC with Wii branding, an atempt to follow what people are saying to do while doing their own thing and the result is a middle of the road platfom that they didn't know how to handle resulting in it's perfomance. If the platform was actually called Wii 2 for a start that would have cleared up the confusion of the first 2 years among consumers, then actually market the platform and have a low entry point it would have attracted a lot more of the Wii market that's for sure. What keeps Nintendo relevant is them doing things their own way.
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I like your mentioning of those who never played a game before. That's what really helped propel the Wii. It brought an entirely new audience to the hobby we've known that has never been explored before. My family (outside of my sibling and cousins) have never touched a game before but were interested with the Wii. Yes casuals helped, but there have always been casual gamers who buy games on occasion compared to the core gamers. The casuals are the bigger audience. Nevertheless, having seniors use the Wii at nursing homes or soccer moms buying the console to spend time with the kids. There is potential if you can entice that audience with something accessible, fun, and interesting. Yes mobile has been a key factor in the audience change so it'll be a challenge.
i think it'll be interesting see how the industry can continue to grow. There are billions of people in this world and the sales of this current gen may not show the type of growth the previous one had. The core gamers are not going to be enough for Nintendo to regain the type of profits they seek. Yes they'll buy more games, but it can only be stretched so far since I'm not sure if core gamers have increased enough to warrant such approach. That's why I'm not sure how much the PS4 Pro will significantly improve sales to an already great selling console. The causals are probably not gonna bother with a model that is $100 more with upgrades that they may not necessarily be interested in because they don't see that much of a difference. It's like the New 3DS and the regular 3DS. It's a great improvement, but if it's gonna play the same games with a slightly upgraded coat of paint, do I care to spend more to get a more graphical experience?
