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Soundwave on 27 May 2015
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zorg1000 said:
Soundwave said:

They need to find a better way to appeal to teenagers and adults. As much as I think Splatoon looks interesting, that character design is simply too kid-centric. Then you have something like Yoshi's Wooly World, which lets be honest ... unless you are a big Nintendo fan, very, very few adults would look at that and want to invest 10+ hours into a $50 game like that. 

That doesn't mean they have to go all dark and violent like third parties do, the actual sweet spot for a design that both kids and teenagers and adults will all buy into is what Marvel Comics does -- still bright, colorful, and full of fantasy so that kids like it, but adults can perfectly enjoy it too. 

I think that's one of their biggest problems. A game like Splatoon doesn't really appeal to everyone because a lot of people won't play it because of the look of the game ... and that's a problem. 


There is more than just 13-35 year old males that enjoy games. Kids, females, parents, these are types of gamers Nintendo should heavily invest in.

Of course that doesn't mean Nintendo should completely ignore teenage/adult males but they shouldn't be the main focus, there should be a healthy mix of support for all types of demographics. Nintendo should continue and increase what they have done with games like Bayonetta 2, Fatal Frame V, Devil's Third while expanding on that and get some more western focused titles thrown in the mix.

The problem with this is none of the games you've listed enter into the type of mass market sweet spot I'm talking about. 

You don't want to have a game that will just automatically be ignored by 13-35 year old males either, because the audience base for just a kids game can be limited. Beyond that kids themselves often don't want a game that looks like its tailor made for them. The avergae 11 year old would probably rather play Call of Duty rather than Yoshi's Wooly World or even Splatoon. They don't want the game that looks like it's "mom approved". 

Bayonetta 2, Fatal Frame V, etc. are too violent, they don't compliment or work with things like Nintendo's core brands (Mario, Pokemon, Zelda) at all. 

The sweet spot today and I've said this before is the Marvel formula. They can appeal to kids, adults, and teenagers all at the same time without getting into a territory that's so violent/dark that it alienates the younger side of the audience, but doesn't get so kid-centric that it turns off adults. Star Wars is another brand license that does this very well. 

No wonder Disney paid out the ass to get both of them.