| Soundwave said: They need to be more nuanced in their approach here though that's all I'm saying. If I'm running a family-friendly TV station, but I want teenager/older viewers, having some that's borderline pornographic all of the sudden is going to be seen as confusing to a lot of people because it doesn't fit the mold of what people expect from my station. Nintendo needs to understand they need to have some "bridge" titles, games that are darker than the Zelda series, but not so dark/violent that they seem compltely out of place on the platform. Then you can start to cultivate an audience and that will help games like Bayonetta. As is though unfortunately they likely are going to see a lot of flops. I think Nintendo needs to decide too ... are they a family company or are they going to move real resources to cultivating an audience for games like Bayo 2 and DT and Xenoblade. Are they willing to spend marketing dollars? Are they willing to be patient and build an audience base? Are they willing to engage with Western 2nd parties again? You can't jut release one "hardcore violent" game every 8-12 months and think there's going to be an audience for that. |
Oh, they need some bridge titles? Like Hyrule Warriors, Monster Hunter, ZombiU? Like their effort to get Resident Evil on Wii and on 3DS? Like their funding of Devil's Third? Like Xenoblade? Like The Last Story? Like Pandora's Tower? Like their support of Tekken Tag Tournament? Or how about games like Twilight Princess? The entire Metroid series? Have you noticed the feeling around Kid Icarus?
I think you're lacking a nuanced understanding of the situation. What's more, your assertion that you have to somehow gradually adjust your audience over is just plain wrong - the audience is made up of people who buy the system. People interested in Bayonetta 2 will buy a Wii U for Bayonetta 2. They then need some other titles to interest them alongside it - you know, like Hyrule Warriors, Devil's Third, Smash Bros (let's admit it - most Bayonetta fans would probably enjoy Smash irrespective of graphical design), and in the case of Japan, Fatal Frame. Some people who already own a system for a game like Super Mario 3D World will also buy other games (I'd probably fit well into that category - games like Mario are the ones I bought the system for, while games like Bayonetta are an added perk), and a transition can certainly help that... but that's not changing the audience, that's broadening the appeal within the audience. If Nintendo is stuck in a "for kids" image, a slow, gradual transition isn't going to fix that. They need a shock and awe approach of emphasising that high quality, dark and edgy titles are on their system.
People like you spend a lot of time criticising Nintendo for their supposedly "kid-centric" approach to gaming... but you wilfully ignore their broad variety of non-kid-friendly titles that they've always had. It's where games like Geist and Eternal Darkness came from. It's where games like Disaster and Sin & Punishment came from. Fire Emblem and Earthbound are two of their darker franchises, too. And then there's the support of games like Red Steel.
And the market is certainly there. Resident Evil 4 on Wii was a port of a port, yet still sold quite strongly. At the promise of support by the creation of more RE titles, Umbrella Chronicles also sold quite well... and look where that got Wii owners.
If there's not enough of an audience for those sorts of games on Nintendo systems, it's not Nintendo's fault. It's the fault of third-party publishers. Anybody that tells you that it's Nintendo's job to create the audience for third parties to sell to is either lying, ignorant, or deluded - which is why, when Nintendo has developed titles that would compete with third parties (for instance, with Goldeneye), third parties have complained that they can't compete with Nintendo. It's the third party's job to develop their audience. It's Nintendo's job to market the system and to get them into the public's hands in the first place.
