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puffy on 10 July 2009
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WereKitten said:

One comment about the "software support" argument that I see around when it comes to new games pushing hardware.
The proponents of such argument maybe are giving too much weight to a mechanism that worked well in the past with a very different audience from the extended Wii one. The extended audience does not generally dwell in internet forums, nor does it know about incoming titles or about motion control hardware improvements. I think that only niches of this new market will react to the new software/WM+ offering (golf lovers, for example)

When it comes to software, who exactly in the extended market that hasn't bought a Wii for WiiSport and WiiFit - that offered new experiences in front of their TV - will buy one for WSR? Or who hasn't bought one for SMG will buy one for NSMB?

It's a market that has been easily satisfied early on and can live forever on evergreen titles. The counter point to a market that has a low barrier of entrance, and is thus quick to adopt, is that it will likely be slower to expand even more when the offer of content increases, because it has less unfulfilled needs.
Or at least, this is what sounds sensible to my intuition, does this make sense to anyone who knows something about business?

There are plenty of people who will buy a Wii for New Super Mario Bros. Wii compared with Super Mario Galaxy because it's much more accessible and is multiplayer. Word of mouth will be much stronger too due to the multiplayer. Wii Sports Resort has a broader focus too, the marketing will be of sporting professionals and not families in the living room. People who want more realistic, precise controls and didn't like Wii Sports' simplicity will be drawn in by it.

Basically the expanded audience leans of new software by word of mouth and generally not the internet. What happens is the Wii sees a rise in the floor of sales, not a massive overnight explosion. It's all about slowly drawing in those 150 Million people waiting for the right software. Now I see what you mean that perhaps Nintendo should focus on new software experiences but I also think the best example to use would be Super Mario Galaxy 2. It's a core title that will be harder than the original, Nintendo are well aware that it's the core gamer that bought Galaxy and it will be core/casual that will buy NSMBWii. So why are they releasing a sequel to a core title? It's Miyamoto's wish obviously and easy money too but unless they plan on assaulting the core space with Metroid/Mario/Zelda next year, I don't see how it fits in with their business plan.