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Soundwave on 22 August 2016
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zorg1000 said:
Soundwave said:

Nintendo did basically try to make something in between. The Wii U. 

If Mario Kart and Splatoon and Mario Maker and New Super Mario Bros. and Rayman and Wii Fit U and Wii Party U and Nintendo Land and Kirby and Yoshi couldn't find the "in between audience" then one has to ask really where it exists. Also not every game on the PS4 is a "blockbuster" title there are "in between" titles there too. 

I mean surely if there was some overwhelming demand for "something in between" the Wii U could muster at least XBox One level sales (a system that also has many design defects and poor messaging). After all, Nintendo should have basically free reign, it's not like anyone is challenging them. 

The thing is with "console players" if you are a kid and you have a console in your house at age 5-7, by the time you are 15-16, you probably have quietly logged almost 1500 hours gaming a modest 4 hours per week (we know many kids play a helluva lot more than that but I'm erring on the lower side). 

1500 hours doing anything will make you pretty good at it. 

To buy a console you really need to also like a fairly wide variety of games. IMO this casual audience that likes Mario Kart and will buy a console just for Mario Kart ... nope. You need to like 6/7/8 franchises I think to really make the leap into buying a $250+ console, a $250 investment just to play 1 or 2 games for someone who doesn't care much for video games to begin with is a very, very hard sell. Even as an experienced gamer would I buy a Samsung console or something just because I like 2-3 games on it? Nope. This is why mobile is so great for casuals, they can get their small gaming itch scratched for free in a device they would want anyway.

They also tried something in between with 3DS and it has sold 60 million so you cant just look at Wii U and come to the conclusion that people only like one side of the spectrum or the other.

You have even talked about how Wii U has a dozen things wrong with it, you cant just keep changing your reasons why you think something failed to fit into whatever argument you're having that day.

Pretty sure a big majority of 3DS buyers are traditional Nintendo handheld buyers. That would be kids and older players who grew up with Nintendo. Many of the so-called "casual" games on it flopped like Brain Training. 3DS is also overall the best dedicated portable and has the benefit of being basically the "PS4 of Japan" (the lead console) because Japan loves portables as their main console. And it was released early enough that the full impact of smart devices/tablets wasn't felt yet in the first year or so of its life cycle (which turned out to be the best year of its life cycle). 

If you can play Mario/Mario Kart/Zelda/Kirby well ... basically you have "mastery" over most gaming functionality (jumping, dodging enemies, steering, shooting projectiles, etc. etc.), you should be able to play most any video game.

Once you can play any video game, well then your choices are opened to more than just Nintendo and quite frankly Sony/MS do a better job of offering a better *overall* ecosystem of games, not just a narrow range of Nintendo IPs and then some OK third party support at best and virtually no support at worst. 

The main point though is Nintendo is not doing a very good job of finding a legitimate "middle ground". Nintendo's idea of it right now is basically make use very crappy hardware, tailor the system design towards beginners and casuals, and hope that throwing Zelda and Mario at the same group of gamers is "good enough" for the experienced players because the hardware is certainly not designed for them at all. There isn't a great deal of nuance to their philosphy at all.