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JWeinCom on 18 October 2012
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Immortal said:
JWeinCom said:
Immortal said:
Well, if by red ocean, you mean games that involve a lot of blood, Nintendo never had that market, except, quite disputably, with the N64.
If you're talking about their "core" market, then I think the change in sales of a staple Nintendo series such as Mario Kart from GC to Wii or DS would be a great measurement of how much Nintendo has lost and failed to expand this audience.


The problem is that these franchises don't only appeal to "core" gamers.  Franchises like Mario Kart have a strong following among pretty much all sects of gaming.  I believe Mario Kart Double Dash sold more or less 8 million while Wii has sold over 20, but this boost is largely coming from the casual sector.


Of course, it's quite possible that many of these casual gamers will continue to support Nintendo, and we'll see this as the Wii U hits shelves.

I'm not sure why that's a problem, though. Nintendo has never appealed to "core" gamers. While Nintendo could try to appeal to this sector and it is (in vain, I suspect), the OP's argument doesn't make much sense. There was no market that declined for Nintendo this generation. There was no "missed opportunity" (unless you count the core market that they never really engaged).

While I certainly don't disagree with the OP, the point they were making is that there was a big segment of the PS2 gaming population that left Sony, which created the opportunity for Microsoft to expand greatly.  If Nintendo could have swooped in and taken that market share from Sony WHILE still doing what they did with the casual market, they could have really dominated. 

Personally, I don't think Nintendo could have done both at the same time.  They made a choice, and it was the right one.