By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - The hardcore abandoned Nintendo; Nintendo didn't abandon the hardcore

Burek on 26 January 2015

I agree with the most people here. Nintendo's problem are not hardcore gamers. Those people are still there, the problem is they are the only ones there, and they are not a numerous population.
Nintendo has lost its grip on the casual gamer, and it is becoming increasing doubtful that they can regain them with XBox and PS being so much in the spotlight as the gaming consoles of choice for sports/shooters/annual blockbusters...



Around the Network
bowserthedog on 26 January 2015
Soundwave said:
bowserthedog said:
Soundwave said:
bowserthedog said:

I don't think it is really about turning the wiiu around. It's about using the wiiu to continue to rebuild their reputation amounst dedicated gamers. Continue to release terrific games for the machine and add as many system features as they can. Would love to see wii-cheivements added as well as cross browser voice chat. Drop the price when they can. It's all about convincing core games who own an xbox one or PS4 to make the wiiu their second system. Make it cheap enough and have a huge lineup of incredible exclusives. Basically just keep doing what they are doing since they are well on the road to recover.

The wiiu was conceived as a half step system. One foot in the "wii" market and one foot in the "core market".  The casual is gone now for consoles. It's finished. With the next console they would have more succes with both feet into the "core market" when conceiving the console. Because that market is growing hugely.


I think owning two consoles is becoming passe too. Most people have a large backlog of games on just one console (even core gamers). 

Unless you're like 19 year old who can play games for 4-5 hours a day every day, most people just don't have the time. We're inundated with too many entertainment options these days, between Youtube, Netflix, PVRing ten different shows, having to watch the big game, etc. etc. I honestly don't know too many people who have the time to play through like even half of the acclaimed games per game. 

No i don't think it's becoming passe.   It's still very common for core gamers to have multiple consoles. There are fans of certain types of games that will buy whatever console they need to buy to play them.  Like a JPRG fan will end up having to own a wiiu for Xenoblade. Out in the real world I know very few console owners who only buy one system a generation and these are the guys who play 2 or 3 games a year not the dedicated gamers.

Nintendo will have an interesting choice to make next gen though. They can fully carry a console by themselves especially once fusion is in place. Do they focus on that and release a system which is a playstation 4.5 that can be sold at break even or close to it on day one?  This route will mean they will likely end up losing cross platform support eventually. Or do they compete againse ps5 and take some financial risk for a potential higher payoff.


I don't think their Fusion platform will even match up with the PS4. 

They don't need third parties for that, and their own designers probably feel like the Wii U as is is a ton of horsepower. All of Nintendo's games look great on the Wii U, even something double the Wii U would likely be more than enough for Nintendo's teams.

Something a decent jump above the Wii U with a low price point, profitable from day 1, easily scalable games (from HH to home), is likely the way they go. In fact I think their next "console" will basically just use the same CPU/GPU as the handheld, it'll just be one with more cores, allowing it to display the same games at 1080p resolution for the TV versus 540p or 720p on the handheld.  

I suspect some of their fans with grumble about this and then will see Mario Galaxy 3 and Monster Hunter 5 and what not and be sold, so their opinion doesn't carry a lot of water either IMO. 


That would be one way to do it. We won't really know until the system is leaked or announced. It would make a lot of sense to do it that way if they are going all in on this being an exclusives based console and carrying it themselves with the help of third parties to make nintendo published exclusives.

However I don' think they'll do it that way. I think there will be a heavy difference in graphics between the console and the handheld because if you don't do that then there isn't much motivation for people to buy the console. I think they would want to make it enticing for people to own both.



https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0JquK6FGR6O-0O-6L-VAuw

Soundwave on 26 January 2015
mii-gamer said:
Soundwave said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Hardcore Nintendo gamers never left Nintendo. The Wii U is the most hardcore Nintendo console since the N64 with highly rated titles. The problem is the early adopter fans who generally buy third party don't have Nintendo consoles. Have Nintendo gain those peoples attention and they will get their sales back in some respect.


Zuh?

Wii U is aimed and marketed primarily at kids and the "family" crowd. Look at 95% of its commercials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn3FrNb1X-E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dbGJieRaH0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD4qU0HCo40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fxQx7ZT-5k

PS4 and XBox One are primarily marketed at hardcore/older mainstream gamers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKeptMVKlsY

The difference in marketing alone is massive. No one but Nintendo fans consider the Wii U a "hardcore" console in the sense that the PS4/X1 are. 

Did you miss the part where he said the most hardcore NINTENDO console? 

I kinda misunderstand his/her post, but I'm not sure it's a really strong point to begin with. GameCube had plenty of "hardcore Nintendo IP" too. So did the Wii to be honest too (it just was successful in getting soccer moms for a few years before they realized Apple was 100x cooler and free/$1 games beat $40 games every day of the week on their shopping list). 



S.T.A.G.E. on 26 January 2015
Soundwave said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Hardcore Nintendo gamers never left Nintendo. The Wii U is the most hardcore Nintendo console since the N64 with highly rated titles. The problem is the early adopter fans who generally buy third party don't have Nintendo consoles. Have Nintendo gain those peoples attention and they will get their sales back in some respect.


Zuh?

Wii U is aimed and marketed primarily at kids and the "family" crowd. Look at 95% of its commercials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qn3FrNb1X-E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dbGJieRaH0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BD4qU0HCo40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fxQx7ZT-5k

PS4 and XBox One are primarily marketed at hardcore/older mainstream gamers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKeptMVKlsY

The difference in marketing alone is massive. No one but Nintendo fans consider the Wii U a "hardcore" console in the sense that the PS4/X1 are. 


You just agreed with my statement when you said this.

"PS4 and XBox One are primarily marketed at hardcore/older mainstream gamers. "

There is no greater market to these groups than third party and Sony and Microsoft in general. ^

The kids and teens want what the adults are buying and the third party are offerig. 

I doubt they wouldn't want Mario, but they want their variety of third party more. The Wii U is the most third party deficient console that Nintendo has ever (and I mean ever) had.



mii-gamer on 26 January 2015
Soundwave said:

I kinda misunderstand his/her post, but I'm not sure it's a really strong point to begin with. GameCube had plenty of "hardcore Nintendo IP" too. So did the Wii to be honest too (it just was successful in getting soccer moms for a few years before they realized Apple was 100x cooler and free/$1 games beat $40 games every day of the week on their shopping list). 


I believe you are still misunderstanding his point



Around the Network
WolfpackN64 on 26 January 2015

No, they need to keep catering to the core audience, they have enough of them with them now to be profitable, they can keep trying.



Soundwave on 26 January 2015

The last time Nintendo really marketed to older teens/adults was the late 90s, early 2000s (in the US anyway) before Howard Lincoln/Minoru Arakawa left the company. 

Conker was advertisied in Playboy Magazine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Qa08QQ4wg

They had swanky Cube Club parties to push the GameCube with a lot of celebrities and what not:

I think though after the GameCube failed to beat the XBox, MS kinda pushed Nintendo out of the core/core casual side of the market (too many mistakes made with the GameCube allowed even a newcomer like MS to beat Nintendo), Nintendo found themselves pushed out of that market. Playstation and XBox were "cool". GameCube was not. 

Nintendo doesn't market like the above anymore, their marketing and focus today is much moreso on kids/families, unfortuantely kids aren't buying the Wii U either. 



Tachikoma on 26 January 2015

I find the definition of "hardcore" is as flexible as the person wants it to be when using the term.

It's an otherwise meaningless term without it.



S.T.A.G.E. on 26 January 2015
Tachikoma said:
I find the definition of "hardcore" is as flexible as the person wants it to be when using the term.

It's an otherwise meaningless term without it.


Hardcore is flexible...in regard to set peraminters as well. It just means a person who is heavily invested. It could mean heavily invested into a brand or genre. IMHO a true hardcore gamer (or the ideal) purchases from as many genres as possible.



Soundwave on 26 January 2015

I don't think it was so much that Nintendo was "abandoned", Nintendo just kinda got beat fair and square by two "cooler" brands in Playstation and XBox that market almost 100% to said "hardcore" male gamer aged 14-35.

Losing all their third party backing because of cartridges on the N64, losing the FPS shooter audience to MS with Halo, toon shading Zelda, and making the GameCube look like a Fisher Price toy with no DVD playback ... they honestly were never going to win by shooting themselves in the foot several times like that.