I also think it's a very weird statement to say that "this is trying to attract casuals. It's not meant to appeal to core gamers."
Um, no it's not? It's trying to appeal to anyone with a social life. Anyone with friends. You know how this app will get big? You'll download it because all your friends are on it. Like any social platform. I'm sure this app's gimmick is that it's gamifying the social platform. What they showed off here will likely act as sort of a terminal. There will probably be like one free minigame to start out. It will be a passive thing you play with your friends, like WwF and Draw Something. There will eventually be a handful of these, and you have to buy each of them for like $.99 each.
So Miitomo will probably be a platform for these mini games, just like Rusty was a free to start platform for its mini games. Only Rusty's games were single player focused. These will be multiplayer focused. I imagine there will be some one on one games, some group games, and some co-op games. I wouldn't expect anything outside of like puzzles and word games. The games are purely meant to act like social lubricant.
It's like you guys were expecting some deep, tactical RPG or something. It's a game for normal people with friends. It's just meant to give people a neat little way to interact with friends. It's not meant to appeal to ANY "gamer." It's meant to appeal to people with friends. Which is almost everybody. It's like getting mad at Cards Against Humanity or Tinder for being to casual. Like, what?
It's especially weird to say it'll only appeal in Japan, when Miis are massively successful in the West. Having friends is successful world wide. This is going to be successful world wide. It's not "too japanese" at all.
EDIT: This is not unlike Bitstrips, which has a very similar visual identity. Massively successful, though.
