Increasing Evidence That Nintendo is Not Serious About the Hardcore Gamers

[forevercloud3000]

I just personally don't believe the WiiU has proven it can defrenciate, let alone capture the PS360 audience. It still seems far too casual oriented in a lot of ways. I would clarify that when I think of Casual and Hardcore...
-Casuals: treat games like a side attraction. They spend just as much money on games as a Hardcore but are far less invested in them mentally. These kinds of gamers are extremely fleeting and often times travel with the herd.
-Hardcore: live and breath gaming. It has become a main hobby for them, takes less to push them because once they have committed to a series or product they are most often there to stay (unless they are abused).

I think all three companies view what Hardcore gamers in a different light though as well. Nintendo seemingly views those who have grown up with their product name, cherish it, and pledge allegiance to support them as their hardcore. These people want the trinity (Zelda,Mario, Metroid) and are immediately satisfied with getting even one of those. This has worked for NIN for many years, and when they lost the Console throne 2 gens in a row these were the gamers that kept them alive. Microsoft sees their Hardcore purely in the monetary sense. They will appease any group that is willing to make them the quickest/largest returns possible. Hasn't failed them either it seems because even after abandoning pursuits of new IPs many still stay with them. Sony sees their hardcore as those who are more so pledged by the brand Playstation itself, in slight contrast with NIN. Under the unspoken promise that PS will keep churning out old and new IPs that titilate gaming norms, these are Sony's devote.

There is a misconception through the media that Hardcore = Adult Oriented but thats not necessarily the case. Sony and MS both concentrate on those kinds of experiences but its not NIN's style. They may want to tap into that market though for it is something they have always lacked, hence the push for 3rd Parties with WiiU I think.

Back to the WiiU, I can understand where the article writer is coming from. WiiU is doing just fine capturing the "Hardcore" audience they always have, Mario fans(Generalization but you know what I mean) and the like. Those who are not enthused by those types of games feel indifferent tho. What was originally thought was WiiU would attempt at courting the OTHER console's Hardcore by going after the things THEY like. I think that would be the only way for the WiiU to gain any serious market share in this fight.

I think Nintendo underestimates the underlining truth that Sony and MS were right about the original Wii all those years ago. It was a FAD! Many don't want to hear it but its true, hence its rapid decline in the last few years. This is not to say it wasn't extremely successful, yet it was a fad. It built its empire on capitalizing on Casual, which I stated earlier are very fickle people. Every manufacturer always WANTS the casuals but to base your entire marketing strategy on them seems to lead to premature death. WiiU should be different but is going about it in an awkward way. WiiU is simply showing it can "match" current gen consoles, and beyond the controller screen and a little more horse power seems to be nothing but. It might prove difficult to sell a product to people when they basically have something already that does the exact same thing for cheaper. I could be wrong, look at apple and the iPhone/iPad relationship, which I think is the basis of their strategy. Unfortunately the Apple strategy has yet to be proven to work for anyone but them. Only they can sell a new product to us that does the same/less than their last product for a ridiculous premium.........