Finally King again, now what?

[Joelcool7]

Well since the SNES days Nintendo fans have been dreaming about Nintendo's triumphant return to the throne as king. It would appear that within weeks Nintendo will once again be the king, now of course many will say that the small lead on 360 doesn't make Nintendo king but I must beg to differ.

 Fact is Nintendo will be king again because not only will they be the number one game publisher as they have been for ages. But they will also have a solid lead in the games hardware industry as well with complete domination of the handheld front and a slight dominance in the home industry. 

 So will Nintendo carry the throne or will they mess up and watch a competitor get crowned once again. I personally feel that in Nintendo's efforts to return to the thrown that they have left their software line-ups week. In the past Nintendo has always been the company with a non-stop killer first party line-up with multiple AAA+ titles a year spread throughout the year. But this year is the perfect example not a single killer App untill August. More then half a year blown and then their September and October where again their is only one A+ title (BattalionWarsII) and a couple flops. Now thats not saying as usual Nintendo's first party line-up is amazing its just the few major hits this year (The big three) and of course the likes of BattalionWarsII may have been better spread out rather then clumped together right before Christmas.

 Nintendo appears to be laxing with such a major lead in monthly sales Nintendo didn't give us the usual AAA+ E3 presentation we have all come to expect. Now I'm sure Nintendo will reveal tons at the upcomming game conferances but so far they are showing weakness. I mean at E3 MarioKart was the only thing to really come out from the conferance in any way targeting Nintendo's established user base. WiiFit yet another game and hardware targeting the casual gamer.

 Also is targeting casual gamers over hardcore smart, I mean sure your bringing in tons of casual gamers but we must remember what a casual gamer is exactly. A casual gamer is a casual gamer not one who spends much time on games not one who plays games steadily but one who picks up a controller maybe once every few months. I know a couple "Casual Gamers" They own N64's and invite me over to play MarioKart64 the odd time, they talk about how they recently got a copy of Banjo-Kazooie from the flee market for only 20$. Those are the people who are currently being targeted and yes they all have bought DS's which sit on their shelves and yes most are considering Wii's "As soon as they drop in price".

Fact is can Nintendo rely on the casual gamers to provide the same amount of supportthe existing loyal user base does. I mean where I buy a good 10-12 games a year a casual gamer may only buy two or three over the whole 5-year lifespan.

 So with fewer and fewer established user base games being announced is Nintendo going to loose touch and return to its place in the rear of the home charts (But still on top of the software and handheld charts). Or will Nintendo as I expect and hope announce a crap load of killer apps targeting the existing fanbase for next year?