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| UltimateUnknown said: Are we even sure at this point that Nintendo is competing directly with MS/Sony? This might be another case of Nintendo trying to get the casuals back in. Not that I think it'll work though. The more time passes the more it becomes clear to me that the Wii was a one time thing and Sony/MS has the core gamer market on lockdown with various price entry points with their new consoles. I really don't see an audience for Nintendo besides their ~10 million diehard fans, especially with all the bridges that have been burned with 3rd parties. |
I think it is very narrow-minded to block everything into two categories, "casual" & "core", the gaming world is not that black & white and does not take into account various demographics.
On PS4/XBO, there really is not alot of diversity in who the major software releases are aimed at, almost all of the big releases cater to teenage & adult males. According to the game database on this site, nearly 80% of retail software sales come from the shooter/sports/action genres. Basically Sony/Microsoft have found their niche in the gaming market and dont seem to be doing a whole lot to appeal to other demographics, thats where Nintendo can potentially do well.
The demographics that arent being catered to by Sony/Microsoft include children, families & females. With the exception of Minecraft & a few Lego games, there really isnt any big hits this generation with strong appeal to these demographics. As Aquamarine's data showed in the most recent NPD thread, the Toys-to-Life market seems to have saturated, Disney is calling an end to Disney Infinity & Skylanders has been declining for a couple years. Just Dance continues to see massive declines year after year and the return of Guitar Hero/Rock Band were not met with commercial success.
Some people may see this as a sign that these demographics are no longer interested in playing on dedicated gaming devices and are forever lost to free games on smartphones, I do not see it that way. I believe there is still a lot of potential to get interest from these demographics, but developers arent going to get it by releasing sequels/reboots to 5-10 year old franchises that are dead/declining.
Guitar Hero debuted in 2005, Rock Band in 2007, Just Dance in 2009, Skylanders in 2011. People got their fill of these games and are ready for new experiences.
If Nintendo can find a way to release products that have strong appeal to children, families & females, in addition to their dedicated fanbase than they can create a strong userbase that is very different from that found of PS/XB devices. I'm not saying that they should completely turn their backs on the teenage/adult male demographics but it cant be their primary focus.
As for the bolded, 3DS has sold about 60 million which shows that there are alot more than just 10 million people who are willing to buy Nintendo hardware.
When the herd loses its way, the shepard must kill the bull that leads them astray.
