That is the reason why 3 party games din't sold very well on the Wii.

That can be literally 95% of the industry, lol. 

There's a difference between a soccer mom who's extent of gaming ability is Angry Birds on a phone or Just Dance, and she'd never be able to complete a game even like Mario 64, and someone who can play Mario 64 just fine, for instance. 

Drawing a dilineation there isn't incorrect, because it's significant, those two audiences are not one and the same. I would more accurately the industry falls into 3 rough pools with some overlap but not a ton ...

Pool 1 - A person who doesn't really care that much about gaming, likes to play once in a while to burn 10-15 minutes at most a day except for that one time they got hooked on Candy Crush and played for 4 straight hours and thought that was an impressive feat. Mostly plays on smartphones/Facebook browser, doesn't like complex games, virtually any type of 3D game is beyond their abilities or interest. Even after 6 years of having a Wii that they played intermittenly, they still wouldn't be able to get even 1/4 of the way through a game like Ocarina of Time even with a gun to their head. 

Pool 2 - This person can basically play any type of game you put in front of them, generally have been playing games since childhood, but they prefer the 'mainstream' games that appeal to their specific real life interests like Call of Duty, NBA, Madden NFL, GTA, Forza, Halo, etc. They prefer to play with friends too. They don't follow the industry closely or at all in most cases. Just wanna have fun, but have a relatively high level of skill, given enough time/practice they would be good at any type of game. Gaming is more "wish fulfillment" for this crowd (I wanna be a sports star, gangster, super soldier, X-Wing pilot, that's cool). 

Pool 3 - Hardcore gamer, they understand industry nuances like the difference between Japanese and American games, keep track of developers and even know the designers of games. They are the wine connosieurs of gaming and early adopters for most/all platforms, they are quite picky in what they will and won't play. Oddly this crowd inadvertantly often becomes the actual buying audience for games like Splatoon because only they can appreciate certain aspects of that game, whereas Pool 1 will shun the game for being too complex and Pool 2 will shun the game because it doesn't allign with their "I just want badass fantasy fullfilment in my games". 

And then you have Pool 4 which is kids ... they are drawn to just about any type of video game like a fly to a light (especially boys). But by age 8/9/10 or they go into either pool 2 or 3 (ie: wanting to play GTA because the older kids at school think it's cool, or loving games so much that they become Pool 3). 

I mostly consider a casual gamer as someone who gets their gaming knowledge from TV's commercials or seeing a friends system/game and going "oh, that's neat. What's that?"

People online bitching about FPS, graphics, power, price, ect are not casual. And I'm sure if you were to ask a mod or owner of this site how many people are this site, it is but a fraction of a fraction of the total gamers out there.

"Core" gamers are the minority.

Will Switch's gimmick (people love to label Nintendo things condesendinly gimmicks don't they?) attract casuals? Very likely initially at least. All it takes is someone to see another on a bus/train/lobby or somewhere playing Mario Kart, Zelda, Skyrim or something on their Switch for the other person playing Clash of Clans to be intrigued/jealous and want that.

The Wii sold gangbusters on that word of mouth/try it out, ect. People had a blast playing Wii sports at a firends and so got it. I'm guessing the initial draw of the Tablet playing great games portable will attract many. It all depends on how long that lasts. Nintendo needs ot keep games pumping out that are fun to keep the tablets in the wild for others to see and want them.

So this is my message to all Nintendo people who want the system to "win". PLAY IN PUBLIC. Don't be ashamed of playing a Nintendo game in public. Be loud and proud with your system. People seeing you playing is free advertising for Nintendo. Now when those "region free" Waifu games come out, then maybe stay hidden again.

Exactly, 95% of people who play games are casual.

And you are still being too black/white when it comes to discussing demographics.

the wii sold like gangbusters by selling to a certain kind of casual.  the kind of casual that never played on a 3D gen console before (n64, ps1, ps2, xbox).  people that found consoles to be intimidating but found the wiimote to be inviting.  

i still remember that time i was at the store and the sales guy was trying to sell a older lady on a sonic game to which she said,.. "oh i dunno.  running and jumping.  i don't think i'm ready for that."

use whatever label you want to describe the audience that made wii successful.  that label of people aren't going to be attracted to the switch.

And I do not consider grandmas and soccer moms or whatever other group you want ot lump into that as casuals. They non gamers that were lured by some neat toy.

I'm talking about the millions of casual gamers who own a PS3/4 or 360/One. There are millions of them. Majority of every userbase is casuals. THis has nothign to do with soccer moms or grandmas.

And I do not consider grandmas and soccer moms or whatever other group you want ot lump into that as casuals. They non gamers that were lured by some neat toy.

I'm talking about the millions of casual gamers who own a PS3/4 or 360/One. There are millions of them. Majority of every userbase is casuals. THis has nothign to do with soccer moms or grandmas.

That's just semantics. 

I think you know full well when people say "casual" on a message board like this they mean grandmas/soccer moms/"I don't like a game unless I can win in 5 minutes" types of people that if they are playing anything today it's largely smartphone apps. 

Yes I agree with that, buuuuuuuut

The bulk of Sony/MS are "casual" gamers to a degree but it's kinda disingenious to use this as an arguement because I think we all know full well when the term "casual" is used on gaming message board discussions, we are talking about people who are *very* casual, as in the types of people who can't really play anything much beyond a 2D Mario, and even more than that, really don't have any desire to want to play anything much beyond that. 

These are people who quite honestly can't even properly play 90% of what Nintendo publishes on a yearly basis.

They mainly today game on smart devices.