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Casuals will never come back to Nintendo, Nintendo's marketing and "style" can't compete compared to Apple and smartphone offerings that are far more stylish, hip, and also give casuals what they want -- simple games that can be had for free or cheap that are easy to play for 15-20 minute bursts. That's all the gaming they need in their life.

The iPhone/iPad have succeeded far past the Wii or even DS's wildest dreams in bringing accessible gaming to the non-gamer masses. You offer a woman (a key demographic in Nintendo's Wii/DS success) an iPhone versus a Wii or DS, and the choice isn't even a contest, they will chose the iPhone every time. Nintendo is simply not needed for casuals anymore, no one is crying out for another Wii Sports other than a few lonely voices who aren't even casual gamers themselves.

As for "hardcore" Nintendo never really was a "hardcore" company. Maybe during the years of 1995-2001 or so, they focused in on responding directly to Sega painting Nintendo as a kids company. Yamauchi angrily reacted to the Genesis eating up more than half of Nintendo's marketshare in the US circa 1993, blasting his own son-in-law Minoru Arakawa in a Japanese newspaper interview (see: the Console Wars book) for letting Sega paint the Super NES as a child's toy.

As a result NOA quickly refocused and made games like Killer Instinct, not only did they uncensor Mortal Kombat, they made their own violent fighting game. GoldenEye and Perfect Dark and the Star Wars deals among other things followed.

But that kinda was abruptly halted too once Iwata came to power in 2001/2002 and Arakawa/Lincoln stepped out. Nintendo is a family-company. The problem is even kids don't want a "family console" (they want what their older brother is playing, the PS4/X1).