What the whiners are forgetting is that Nintendo has more resources now for R&D than they did a few years ago as a result of the Money Making Machine aka the DS. So even though they are shifting focus towards the so called "casual market" they can still maintain and even increase their budget for the hardcore market. For those mathematically inclined the following illustrates my point:
Note: The following figures are made up and unrealistic - but they work for proving my point:
Lets say their games budget was 50 million cash before the DS and Wii came along. They would split it so 20% was for the casual markets and 80% for hardcore. That's 10 and 40 million respectively.
Now fast forward past the successes of DS, Brain Age, Nintendogs, etc... and Nintendo now has 500 million to spend on R&D. They announce that they are SHIFTING FOCUS towards casual games and flip the budget so that casual games get 80% and hardcore only gets 20%.
Result: The gamers whine that they are beeing "forgotten". But is that really true? Look at the actual dollar values of the budgets:
Casual: 400 million
Hardcore: 100 million (a 150% increase!!!)
That actaully means that even though they have shifted focus (and quite heavily so) - we are still getting more hardcore games than ever before.
I want you!
