Nintendo should copy Sony

[S.T.A.G.E.]

Veknoid_Outcast said:

S.T.A.G.E. said:

phenom08 said:

S.T.A.G.E. said:

 

They are. I am going to school for illustration and I know what characters are commercially created to attract children, adults, everyone, etc.

So Sony is for kids.

No...technically Sony is for everyone. Theres mature games, sports, casual, platform and all under one brand. No other brand has been that comprehensive since Sega. Like it or not Mario is a casual platformer, Zelda and Metroid are the true standout titles when taking a step up, which is why they dont sell as much as Mario (outside of bundles). Nintendo is commercially more of a family friendly brand. Sony console are generally purchased by teen males to age 40 which means people upgraded to Sony. All Sony needs to do is get a commercial hit of a title and theres always next gen.

I don't think anyone would argue that the N64, GCN, and Wii had a deeper and wider assortment of games than their Sony counterparts. Clearly the three generations of Playstation systems have the bigger library.

I also agree with your points in terms of branding. Nintendo is a family-friendly brand. Sony is more of an adult-oriented brand.

But I disagree with the premise that Mario is a "casual" game, and that Metroid and Zelda are the only Nintendo IPs that stray into "hardcore" territory.

In fact, I disagree with your entire conceptualization of "casual" and "hardcore." For me, there are no casual and hardcore games. It's a complete misnomer. A video game fan could buy a so-called hardcore title like Halo or Call of Duty and play multiplayer once a week with a few friends, and completely ignore the single-player campaign. Or a fan could play a so-called casual title like Mario for hours in a single sitting trying to find every hidden coin and secret world.

There are only casual and hardcore gamers, not games. And even those terms are counter-productive and divisive. The point is this: if you are a real "hardcore gamer" you'll play any and every game you can get your hands on, regardless of sex, blood, gore, and other adult content.

There is a difference between  a casual and a hardcore gamer. Super Mario is a pick up and play game that doesnt involve control scheme difficulty but rather the difficulty is based on the course you are to walk through. Depending on the difficulty you choose is the level at which you will play. Easy is generally the casual setting. Most games now have a casual setting because casuals in most cases just want an experience and not an overcomplicated challenge. They want a slight challenge if one at all. A hardcore gamer will play mario to death on the hardest setting finding the ins and outs of the game. Mario was not created to attract hardcore gamers, but I am sure there are setting the core gamer can set to play a harder setting. Mario attracts mostly women/children and alot of people grew up with it. What game do you think my mother thought was the only acceptable game to buy for me with the Nintendo when I was really young? Mario. Would she have bought me any of the Sony exclusives? Hell no, unless it was Crash or Spyro. The only chracters my mother knew about were Mario, Donkey Kong and Sonic the Hedgehog. I dont disagree that a hardcore gamer will play any game at all, theres no doubt about that, but hardcore gamers are more defined by the way they play games rather than just their voice in variety. If they are passionate gamers variety is a given. Theres a reason Nintendo is after the PS3/360 crowd and its because they offer something Nintendo doesn't in their games. Even after selling nearly 100 million consoles they still lacked a proper core fanbase. They could sell their third party core titles for anything.