Nintendo's gamer strategy and why they could take it all this next gen

[MaxwellGT2000]

So I've been discussing this with many of my VGC buddies for the past few days and I wanted to share my thoughts and analysis of the Nintendo/Wii U/software strategy.

First off, Nintendo has always stated that their idea is to get a new demographic into gaming and then get them to become more core, this strategy isn't anything new actually, starts with saving the game industry with the NES, a system that stayed the same without all the 2600, 5200, tags and making things complicated for the main demographic of the time, kids and parents.  Eventually these kids grew up, started falling out of the hobby as well as their parents, so Sony came in with the PS1 and bringing in a new demographic that thought gaming was "lame" and made a huge group of brand loyalists, then Wii comes along and goes for the Apple idea and make gaming as open as possible for everyone, but for various reasons it still left out that PS1/PS2 demographic, that needs a really good sell to jump brands, Microsoft has obviously started to do it, now with the Wii U Nintendo wants to while keeping up with what they started on the Wii.

This leads me into the software they want to do this with, Nintendo Land, I'm not 100% on it catching on like Wii Sports, but if it does it'll be because of a familiar style of packaging, the bundle with the Deluxe to get the game into peoples hands (which is obviously happening with the sell outs), and because of the open to everyone feel to the games.  Which leads me to why I think this software will be awesome for the idea of bringing in the previous casual crowd closer to the core gamer crowd thus possibly getting more people into and spending money on the hobby.  Nintendo Land is a very casual friendly game with basic ideas and gameplay of the series it represents, this gets the casual crowd familiar with said series and how they essentially play, while also drawing in some core crowd that like the idea, both can play together (AKA mom and son) and the son can show mom a thing or two or talk about said series while playing.  I think this is the grand strategy of this specific software and if it sparks a fire it could work well to their strategy of conversion.

My second thought on the matter came up a while back and it involves the power of the hardware.  Developers have said if there was a giant leap in power causing development costs to rise 4 to 6 times like it did going from PS2/GC/Xbox to PS3/360 they simply could not operate making games that max out said hardware, so they would effectively still be developing around current gen technology levels, which means Wii U will be fine for these developers till technology and development costs come drastically down, which might be a good minute with how many artists it takes to make games today.  Basically this means even if PS4 and the next Xbox are huge leaps, the games will stay effectively within range of each other for porting, these developers want their games on as many systems as they can get and it showed with this past generation and the lack of exclusives.

What does this mean for the console owners?  Well it means they will have to fight the battle with innovation and first parties alone, this puts really puts Sony and Microsoft into Nintendos home turf, a company that lived off its first party during the GC days to keep its head above water for software releases.  Sony has good devs, but not the IPs to take off that would draw in the crowd on their own outside of GT, combined with the R&D in fighting, I feel they will drop move next gen for another idea to take hold, to differentiate themselves this time, but if this idea takes off all depends on Sony and if they develop a product with the average consumer in mind rather than top of the line technology that doesn't fit the populace like in the past with their 3D technology, they can play ball but it's really up to them.  Microsoft on the other hand has a number of rumors and patents floating around which would assume a major upgrade to the Kinect for next gen, while it obviously did better than Move and was supported more of the HD motion controls, I think tactile feedback is still needed in gaming and has been a major problem in Kinect development, doing it more accurately only opens up a few doors instead of a making it be a game changer like I feel it would need to be.  

So in a perfect storm for Nintendo, they continue to be open to the casual gamer and don't forget it ALA comic book crash of the 90s, but with games to now take the demographic it won over last gen and make them really get into gaming full swing, while having the power to keep the third parties and multiplats coming.  When Sony and Microsoft release their consoles if they release them with much stronger hardware, it likely won't keep the multiplats off Wii U, so by doing so they're raising technology costs and hurting themselves on entry price, if they don't go with much higher spec hardware, they're effectively doing the same just hopefully at a consumer friendly price, this is before any controller technology they will possibly want to include with every system to differentiate themselves from the competition, that might take a 300 dollar system to 400 dollars or beyond.  Not being out first might be an issue there as well, when better technology might not justify the higher price tag for the same games.  So with that if Nintendo can hold onto both demographics while essentially forcing Micosoft and Sony into innovation and first party making the difference, they could possibly capture a lot of the base they really want while keeping the one they have and undercutting Microsoft and Sony before they get the chance.  If all the cards fall right this could be a brilliant strategy.