The Wii is Nintendo's b*st*rd child...

[amp316]

archbrix said:

amp316 said:

DanneSandin said:

amp316 said:

DanneSandin said:

 

It's quite simple really.  Except for the Wii (and I mean ONLY the Wii) no system has ever had the mass market consumer dive in en masse right off the bat.  Not the NES, not the SNES, not the PS1... not even the DS.  And the reason for the PS2's remarkable instant success was due to Sony having pretty much every core gamer in the bag at its launch, in addition to DVD playback.  Nintendo knows that much of what makes the WiiU stand appart (1080 graphics and more powerful tech) is not going to persuade many mass market consumers immediately, as these aren't the things that attracted them to the Wii.  Nintendo also knows that these same consumers will not be buying a NeXtBox or a PS4 at launch, either.

Therefore, Nintendo is (wisely, IMO), targeting the core gamers early on; the ones who early adopt, typically spend more on games, and who actually are apt to consider a NeXtBox or PS4 at launch.  As the system comes down in price and gains a robust library of titles, this is when WiiU can prioritize on courting the mass market, much like the DS did, which wasn't a mass market monster until over a year after its launch... and we all know how that worked out for that system.

That said, Iwata stated in a recent interview the importance of evergreen titles that will lead to Nintendo's growth early on as well, despite the whole "depth over width" philosophy.  So as long as Nintendo doesn't ignore the mass market entirely in the beginning, I see great possibility for the future of WiiU with this strategy.

*I'm actually in the process of making a thread on this very subject, so you just got the chance to debate it early.  :)

I agree with pretty much everything in your first paragraph except I really don't think that many people bought the PS2 because it was a DVD player as I suspect that not many consumers purchased a PS3 because it was a casual observation.  Just an observation.

I don't think trying to adopt core gamers first is the way to go with Wii U.  This was the strategy that they used with the Gamecube and the sales for that system were a miserable failure until a massive price drop.  Regardless of what anyone may say, the Wii was a much bigger success initially than even Nintendo expected.  The plan looked brilliant since the Wii captured the imagination of non-gamers and those that hadn't gamed for years.  Now Nintendo is turning their back on this massive group of people that bought Wiis.  Why?  They listened to press clippings and to "real gamers" that want the next Wii to be one of the HD triplets.

Nintendo doesn't seem interested in giving the people what they want.  They are interested making the games that they want to make and trying to talk the people into wanting it.