Wii U era Nintendo felt too... Soft

[Shiken]

TheMisterManGuy said:

Shiken said:
The WiiU was a console that was geared to hardcore gamers, but marketed for casuals. They thought everyone who bought a Wii would also get a WiiU, so they made a lot of games that hit a middle ground. Not too casual, but not hardcore either. After the failure of the WiiU for multiple reasons, they geared the Switch mainly for core gamers seeing how it is the core gamers that are always buying new tech, not casuals.

As you said, there were a few hardcore titles like Xenoblade X, BotW, and Bayonetta for the fans that wanted them, but I think they were leaning on 3rd parties to satisfy the needs of the more hardcore audience. When support fell out, so did any chance they had for success.

This time around things are different. AAA games are still missing from 3rd parties sure, but Indies and AA games more than satisfy the itch for 3rd party games for the most part. The big difference is games like BotW, Splatoon 2, Bayo 1,2,3, Prime 4, Smash, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem etc being more geared in depth for the core audience. This give the Switch identity outside of a machine that plays AA games and indies, and makes it a device truly worth having.

Switch is no less aimed at casuals than other Nintendo consoles. It's just that the Switch is versatile enough to appeal to a diverse range of consumers. Half the games you listed, BotW, Splatoon 2, Smash Bros. are as much casual games as they are core games. 

The gameplay mechanics of those games are more catered to core gamers than most WiiU exclusives.  The WiiU had good games, just not ones that core gamers would buy a console for.

 

Splatoon landed after the WiiU was deemed a failure, making it good for those that already had the system but not so much for those that did not.  They were not going to buy a system for one new IP, so they never really learned how good the game really was.  Fast forward to Switch, a much more successful console largely due to BotW being a launch game, and we have people willing to try Splatoon 2 out on their shiney new console.  Its success speaks volumes.

 

So you seem to have it wrong.  A game can cater to both, but most WiiU games did not.  The question is not if it has games that only appeal to core gamers, but if it has games that are core enough to attract them.  That is the difference, and Nintendo's focus is clearly more core this time around.

 

Remember, even games like CoD or Battlefield can appeal to a casual gamer as well.  They are easier to please than core gamers so just because a casual can enjoy Smash just as much as a core gamer, that does not make it any less a core game.