zorg1000 said:
Soundwave said:
Being casual actually does mean you need some kind of new "hook" every few years or the audience loses interest. Casuals are different from hardcore gamers in that way, they'll love Angry Birds for 4 years, but in the 5th year they'll get sick of it and never play it again. And they're cool with that. That's not like hardcore gamers where we like to play Mario, Madden, COD, Halo, for decades on end.
So Nintendo was actually kinda right about that. The Wiimote was losing it's "wow" factor by 2010 or so. But you just can't "manfacture" a controller phenomenon, it's one of those things that happens once in a blue moon and Nintendo was lucky enough to have stumbled upon it because the Wiimote creator actually went to Sony first and Sony had their own wand controller in development for Eye Toy several years before that to boot.
Splatoon is not really a casual game. It's a pretty hardcore game ... online only (basically) with a minimal offline mode and very limited local multi. Of course it has the Disney-esque art style over it, but that's just Nintendo's M.O. ... creating deep, actually hardcore game experiences, that are inviting with an initial easy learning curve. But Splatoon is basically Nintendo's first true online-centered game IP.
So I don't think that would've made a difference with the Wii Sports crowd. Truth be told it's not like Nintendo Land was a terrible game. It's probably the best "casual" game Nintendo's ever made. We confuse "quality" with "market success", the two are not mutually exclusive.
It helps I think to be able to pull off the "I'm a fan of company X/Y/Z" and just be able to look at things from the POV of other audience bases too. The iPhone changed the world. The world. I don't think I overstate that. The world it changed is one that Nintendo was not prepared for.
To match what was happening to the casual market with smart devices, Nintendo had to step their game up 5 or 6 fold, problem is they had grown fat and lazy with the Wii's initial success and was in "cruise" mode. When the 3DS did not perform well out of the gate, it was a shock to Nintendo, but really there's nothing they could've done ... Nintendo is just a small fry in the overall ocean to be honest. Apple/Steve Jobs' destiny was simply bigger than theirs.
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Ur just making up ur own definitions now, casual does not mean a new crazy "hook" every few years, if that were the case than people would have moved on from iPhone by now. That next sentence is exactly what I'm saying, for casuals u can't just release new hardware that costs $100 more with a couple games that appear to be HD/3D remasters and expect sales to skyrocket, they want affordable hardware, simple controls and new experiences in the software.
Like I said, I don't believe Wii/DS level sales were ever going to happen again but there is a huge middle ground between Wii/DS & Wii U/3DS, if Nintendo played their cards right than they could have been much better off this generation.
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Apple doesn't have the issues that Nintendo does because they have so much content on their devices. They also successfully understood how to make an electronics brand a fashion statement, something no other company really has been able to contend with, and Nintendo would be so far out of their marketing element even trying to match that level of brand swag.
Nintendo needs to resort more to singular "home run" type phenonemons otherwise they run out of gas. That's just how it goes for Nintendo. And the Wii was very definitely running out of gas after 2009, the signs were fairly evident long before the ill-fated Wii U, so blaming everything on the Wii U is a bit disingenious.
Casuals don't need a game console period. If I'm a casual what do I need a $300 game playing device for? Wii Sports/Fit was a fun little fad, but don't confuse two things ... just because a girl wants to dance with you for five minutes doesn't mean she wants to marry you.
iPhone/Android fans satisfy all the needs of casual gamers in ways Nintendo really couldn't ever compete with. To be honest, there's nothing Nintendo really could've done. The iPhone was just an impending tsunami coming at them that was going to hit them no matter what, and unless they made the iPhone before Apple made it, nothing was really changing that.
In hindsight there's nothing they could've done. I've had casual friends over to play the Wii U, the ones that basically can't play anything but Wii Sports ... and they had a *great* time with Nintendo Land. The laughter in my house was so loud actually I thought I might get a complaint from my neighbors. But none of them bought the system. Being a quality product just wasn't enough, gaming isn't a "need" for them, sure they like Nintendo Land or Mario, but they like Angry Birds too, but Angry Birds is always with them and is free ... Wii U and Nintendo Land is $350. Not surprising which way casuals went.
