Wii not competing!

[nintendo_fanboy]

In some ways they really aren't competing, but it's a little bit more complicated I think.


When Sony entered the industry, their game system did sell so well because they targeted a new audience. Of course there were a lot of former SNES/Genesis owners that bought a PS, but the majority were totally new gamers I think. This group is today called the hardcore gamer, but it's not the same group that was called the hardcore gamers back in the SNES days.

The new hardcore gamers prefer FPS, Racing/Sports games and Sandbox RPG's. The old hardcore gamers prefered platformers, action-adventures and RPG's. The big difference between these genres is that FPS etc. all play in a real world, while for the others, a fantasy world suits much better.

This had a big impact in the PS1/N64 era: Nintendo continued to focus on those "fantasy-genres", which made those new hardcore gamers think that Nintendo is "kiddie".

Because of clever marketing and great third party relationships, Sony could make those new hardcore gamers the most important and biggest group in the gaming world.

With the Gamecube, Nintendo tried to fix all the mistakes they made during the N64 era: They skipped from modules to DVD's, they stopped to delay their games, they had much better third party relationships, they tried to get more games that target the new hardcore gamers (RE exclusivity is the best example.) But nothing happened, Nintendo stayed kiddie and therefore untouchable for those new hardcore gamers.

So, Nintendo understood that as long as Mario will be on their console, they will not be able to get the attention of this group. But they found a way out: Targeting a totally new audience that has no problem with Mario or other so-called kiddie games.


Nintendo is not competing with MS and Sony for those new hardcore gamers. But they are still competing in all the other ways.


Wow, I did not expect that this post becomes that long...