Nintendo has lost the core market this generation

[mike_intellivision]

What is the core? In many fruits, it is the part in the middle you do not eat (but rather throw away). In computers, it is the central processor around everything else is built.

Traditionally, the video games market has treated what it has considered the "core" more like the latter of these definitions than the former.

However, Nintendo has decided not to do that. It has not thrown away the core per se (as in the first example above), but rather given it equal billing with the rest of the system (or fruit). Thus, many "core" gamers, no longer receiving their perceived predestined preferential treatment, feel like Nintendo is treating them like apple cores (not Apple Corps, by the way -- that would be in The Beatles: Rock Band).

Nintendo has decided to do things its own way and differently. It has been profitable for it and led to record sales. I has even reached out to third-parties much more than ever before. But for some, this has not been enough.

The third-party support has been slow because of the sunk cost and near equilibrium in the market between the Wii and other two consoles combined. (Unlike the DS, there is an alternative to developing for the Wii that the market was ready to support upon release and thus there was a substantial investment made in that area that must be recouped).

In closing, maybe Nintendo's thinking is more like an apple. After all, if it succeeds, the old "core" will be "thrown away" for the new expanded gaming universe. That sounds great -- unless you are in the core.

Mike from Morgantown