Erik designs the Wii 2

[Erik Aston]

Play4Fun said:

That doesn't meant Nintendo shouldn't advance graphics-wise. You really think people will go out and buy an HD Wii when they didn't care enough about HD to ignore Wii and get a PS3/360?

Not to mention Nintendo has the casuals locked down and needs to grow by attracting Core gamers.

That's a TERRIBLE idea. TERRIBLE!!!

And guess what? More power gives devs more options to put fun things in games. Power isn't just about graphics.

SNES was just a graphics upgrade. PS2 was just a graphics upgrade. So was Game Boy Color, and Advance, and now 3DS. And N64 was supposedly a revolutionary console, but it plummeted in sales from SNES. You can name the great games for N64 on your fingers.

There is no such thing as "casuals." C'mon, man. The expanded audience that Nintendo pursued with Wii now become part of the "core" audience when Nintendo launches the next console. Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Mario Bros. and Mario Kart represent the "core" of Nintendo's console business.

Clearly, when Wii Party, Just Dance and Kinect are best-sellers, the people you and others call "casuals" are actually part of the core audience for gaming. Just Dance 2, Zumba Fitness and the Michael Jackson game were in the top 10 games in NPD last month. This is not 2004 anymore.

And nobody is "locked down." Wii Fit had an expansion pak and Nintendo has not moved to make any secondary fitness titles. Wii Sports had an excellent sequel, but it seemed more focused on showing off Motion than having the most fun games. And Miyamoto keeps trying to make 3D Mario into 2D Mario, resulting in less 2D Mario games and worse 3D Mario games. So if anything, Nintendo is taking their core audience for granted and are likely to enter slow decline, if they haven't already.