zorg1000 said:
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. |
I don't think anyone is arguing the case for handhelds here. Nintendo handhelds have traditionally done very well in the children's market besides the hardcore Nintendo fans and the 3DS has been no different. That being said looking at Nintendo's past handheld sales I don't think the effect of smartphones slowly chipping away at the children's market cannot be denied.
The real point being made was about the NX, their next home console. As I said at the very beginning, contrary to what people have been arguing in this thread so far about whether NX is screwed against Neo/Scorpio from a straight power perspective, that doesn't really matter because Nintendo will likely not aim the NX to the same market that likes/needs strong consoles. They've admitted it themselves. So yes I do agree with you in that I think they will try yet another console like the Wii that will try to entice that "casual" audience, or "children, families, females", or whatever you want to call them. But I'm very doubtful this is going to work out very well because creating a phenomenon like the Wii isn't creatively an easy task. Unlike Sony/MS who can follow a relatively standard formula and release a more powerful console (that get good 3rd party support) to gain back their audience, Nintendo will have to take a huge risk (like they tried with the Wii U and its gamepad) that isn't necessarily going to be a guaranteed success. But I suppose only time will tell.
