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pokoko on 25 October 2013
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Salnax said:
HikenNoAce said:


Because the days of the casuals are over.


An excellent point. Each of the factors I mentioned are easily swept away by that single vague phrase. I guess that is why recent casual games like Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Tomodatchi Collection: New Life have bombed on the 3DS, while even the once-great Wii Sports only sold 700,000 copies this year despite merely being released a bit over half a decade ago. That would also explain why Just Dance 4 only sold 6.5 million on the Wii alone in under a year. The casual market is obviously gone forever. Especially since games like Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, and sports games are never played casually.

Thank you for enlightening me.

But has the casual market shown even the slightest bit of interest in the Wii U?  Does it even understand the Wii U?

Right now, the casual market is elsewhere: smart-phones, browser games, and the 3DS.  Even the Wii is probably still selling to the casual market.

Does that mean the Wii U can't tap that market?  No, of course not, it's always possible.  However, we've had no indications of such.  The game-pad is not drawing them in on its own and neither is the software released thus far.  Will Wii Party U do the trick?  Perhaps, though I doubt it.  Personally, I don't see any of the 2013 software bringing in anyone except people who were already Nintendo fans and were really just waiting for the library to build before buying in.  I think there will be minimal hype for the Wii U and that it will win very few new customers--by which I mean the people who are sitting back and saying, "impress me."

2014 is a different story.  I see the Wii U pulling nice numbers over Christmas '14 after the release of a few big guns and the expected release of a few more.  But the 2013 holiday season?  It's going to be more about holding the line than about advancing their position.