It seems to me that the bridge game philosophy of Nintendo is thriving, considering the success of Mario Kart Wii, Brawl, and Galaxy. Sure you alienate a few at the hard end, but you win a world of openness.
Cultivating your users as something completely separate is a bad idea in the long run, which you can probably see in Sony's strategy, where they brought out the PS3, the epitome of a tech-focused product to excite and rally the core base, while continuing to shower the late-comers (casuals) who entered the PS2 arena, and are now having problems really getting it together.
The only drawback to Nintendo's strategy is that they lose these ultra-elite hardcore gamers, and they don't seem to be the best customer group to have anyway, with their incessant whining and all
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
