your mother on 27 February 2007
ranzchic said:
I don't really equate nominal attempts at attracting casual/nongamers using flOw and Viva Pinata to Nintendo's attempt to buying the hardcores via its flagship titles. It's Super Mario Galaxy ferrchrissake! Should I even mention SSBB?? I put those two at the same level as Halo 3, FFXIII and GTA4.
Viva Pinata and flOw are no Wii Sports and waggle either.
The games you mentioned are their flagship titles, but interestingly enough, they weren't out for launch. Wii Sports was, however, and that is what I mean by segmentation. Of course, Zelda as a launch title would attract some of the hardcore gamers, but mainly it attracted the Zelda faithful. And looking at how Warioware outsold Zelda I still think Nintendo is going for different pockets than the other two, with good results; otherwise, Zelda should've sold more than a party game title.
My bet is that Nintendo released Wii Sports specifically because they could attract casual/non gamers (which they have).
Nobody is disagreeing with the Mario franchise being on par with Halo and FF.
fl0w and Viva Piniata may be nominal, but that is because both Sony and Microsoft are aiming primarily at "hardcore" gamers. Nintendo is not. That's my point. Now if Nintendo can attract the "hardcore" gamers out there (Kwaad, DIAR, et. al?) then all the better. But Nintendo does not really NEED to attract them. Zelda, Mario, Yoshi, Wario and all the other IP they have are perfectly capable of pushing sales by virtue of name alone.
The whole Wii philosophy is based on accessible gameplay that anyone can enjoy. However, by doing so they have alienated some "hardcore" gamers out there. By using the Wii remote control Nintendo broke down some serious walls. This was all done to attract the demographics that Microsoft and Sony aren't really interested in.
And you still haven't answered me - what do you mean by "don't feel safe"?
I think you are pretty squarely in Nintendo's camp. Are you suggesting that I am not?
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