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Soundwave on 22 August 2016
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zorg1000 said:
Soundwave said:

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. 

You are just spouting nonsense, I talk about how there is a middle ground between simplistic, casual, mobile games & complex, hardcore, console games and somehow your rebuttle is that the most recent Brain Training flopped on 3DS. How is that relevant at all?

You are entirely too vague, you seem to live in a world that is black & white. Gamers are either casual or they are hardcore. Gamers are either novices or experts.

If you can play Mario, Kirby, Mario Kart than you can play basically any game? What kind of nonsense is that? It literally makes no sense.

The sales data we see every month indicates the market of today there isn't much of a market for "in between" games or perhaps your definition of "in between" games and what the market considers "in between" has changed. 

Today's "in between" game may well be things like Uncharted or Overwatch or "Calladooty" instead of Megaman and Sonic and Banjo-Kazooie. These are changes in market tastes in terms of game presentation. It happens in every entertainment medium, whether its TV or movies or popular music, so there was never a reason to expect games would stay static in the 80s/90s forever. I would say Madden, FIFA, NBA2K are also "in between" games. 

Nintendo's IP remain popular because they have a very loyal core group of fans that will support Mario/Zelda/Pokemon/etc. because they grew up with those IP in the 80s/90s/early 2000s so they can withstand those changing general market tastes. 

If you can master the concepts of a game like Mario 3D World ... then sure I think you could play most any game. Mario basically teaches all the "basics" that most core video games have at their core ... running, maneuvering in a 3D space, dodging, jumping, developing fast reflexes, even shooting projectiles. If you're proficient in a game like Mario 3D World, sure I think you could put many games in front of that player and they'd be OK at them. 

The issue is many people don't even want to learn even that much, they just don't have that level of interest in games and never will, let them have their fun with their touch only games. I have a fiance who's in this boat, she doesn't want to even get good at something like Mario 3D World or Splatoon, and no amout of fancy dressing or presentation or different controllers will ever change that. She'll try it for 5-10 minutes, get frustrated, and then want to stop playing.