Seems that most pokemon go players were not traditional core gamers. If somehow Nintendo get it that crowd(with pokemon let's go Pikachu /eevee) , we'd have the answer.

In Wii's first full year on the market alone, releases published by Nintendo included:

"Casual" - Wii Sports, Wii Play, Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree.

"Core" - Twilight Princess, Excite Truck, Super Paper Mario, Pokemon Battle Revolution, Mario Strikers Charged, Metroid Prime 3, DK Barrel Blast, Battalion Wars 2,  Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Super Mario Galaxy.

Games People Idiotically Consider "Casual" Even Though The Franchises Far Predate That Stupid Term - Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Mario Party 8.

The sheer level of "Nintendo abandoned core gamers from the start" in that early release slate, is almost deafening isn't it? Releasing TWO games with the word "Wii ____" in it, is honestly too much. Giving people a mainline Zelda, Excite racing game, Paper Mario, Metroid, Battalion Wars, Fire Emblem, AND 3D Mario game, within the FIRST YEAR OF LAUNCH, is pretty much textbook "ignoring their core audience", right?


Sorry for the snark, but seriously, for all of its flaws, the volume of NINTENDO published Wii games alone, that would fall under the "core" category, far outweighs their "casual" releases on the system. The myth that "Nintendo abandoned the core gamer with DS/Wii", should have died years ago, let alone somehow persisting into 2018. Wii wasn't perfect, and it sure as hell had its flaws as a console, and I was never HUGE on games that forced motion controls on you. But seriously? The Wii had a pretty great library of games, just from Nintendo itself. A Mario Kart, Smash Bros., Fire Emblem, Battalion Wars, Wario Land, Punch Out, 2 Excite racers, Metroid Prime 3 AND Trilogy AND Other M (even though that game was whatever), 2 Kirby releases and a collection release, a new Donkey Kong Country, 2 3D Marios AND the first 2D Mario on a home console in almost two decades, AND technically 2 main-line Zelda games.

Not too shabby for a "casual" console. And certainly a hell of a lot more quality games released for it, first AND third party, than Wii U.

Also Mario Strikers/Sluggers, Pikmin 1 & 2 re-release, Sin & Punishment, Xenoblade Chronicles

The thing is Labo isn't even really that unique. There's plenty of hardware/build toys/for kid add-ons for the iPad/Android tablets, several of which I could see kids preferring to Labo (I'd take that Hot Wheels set as a kid over Labo any day):

The problem is this type of stuff only works if its an actual blue ocean ... which it isn't and hasn't been for ages. The market is flooded with all type of plastic toys and various other shit from dozens upon dozens of companies trying to get a cut of the massive app industry. 

The so-called "expanded audience" is the most overserved market today, more developers are making free apps for that crowd 24/7 than any other type of game software. 

Let's be honest here, most people have never even heard of these things, and most of them aren't even free (I bet they cost around as much as Labo). Labo is unique in that you can customize and decorate your Toy-Con however you want. And even if it isn't a completely new concept, it is a unique take on the idea. I mean, there were pet sims before Nintendogs, but Nintendogs did it in a unique way. Nintendo has shown time and time again that it's not about what you're doing, its how your doing it.

If we're going to be honest, most people have never heard of Labo or care about it if they have. If you want to be honest. 

And right on cue, this week shows Labo Variety Pack dropping to sub-10k sales on Media Create Japan. A large 70% drop from last week. 

Brain Training didn't drop under 10k for like a year and a half+. I don't think Labo after 4 weeks including Golden Week has even sold through its initial shipment in Japan which is probably even more damning. 

This is no Brain Training, it won't even do 10% of the business in Japan there and probably less worldwide. And there's little to no hardware boost for Switch.

Kirby is going to easily outsell Labo in Japan and Kirby is pretty firmly a B-tier Nintendo property. Nintendo might be in denial about it but Switch is going to have to be driven by more traditional gaming experiences, things like 1,2 Switch and Labo are not really taking off anywhere close to what the DS/Wii-era hits did and that's just the facts. 

Before we cry foul lets remember the upcoming "Hard Core Gamer" Games:

Fire Emblem

Smash Bros.

Metroid Prime 4

Monolith's New Game they've been actively recruiting for

And a slew of Hardcore Ports & indies:

Hyper Light Drifter

Dead Cells

Hollow Knight

Dark Souls

Ys VIII

Wolfenstein II

Even if they do appeal to Casual gamers again....seems they will have both Hardcore and Casual covered.

Labo is going to have trouble selling that initial shipment. The 1st week sales were 90,410 for the Variety Kit and 28,629 for the Robot Kit, which is about 119,000 units combined, but apparently this was only about 30% sell through of the initial shipment in Japan. So that means Nintendo shipped about 380,000 between the two kits in Japan as its first shipment.

https://www.dualshockers.com/nintendo-labo-sales-japan/

Today, post Golden Week and now 4 tracking weeks on market, Labo (both versions) is sitting at 201,500 sold through approximately in Japan. That means Japanese retailers are stuck with a shit-ton of unsold inventory and given how Labo's not showing great legs (already sub-10k for the Variety kit, sub 2500 for the Robot Kit) it probably means Labo is likely going to have to be discounted heavily to sell through its initial shipment.

Wii/DS era my ass, this is not anywhere close, Nintendo can keep trying to bang their head against this wall again and again or they accept the market as it actually is today and get back to what was making the Switch successful last year.

Everything had a massive drop this week, even Kirby which like the variety kit, sold under 10k, I mean it's post Golden Week. Even then, the Variety kit is still in the top 5, so it's still hanging in there. Labo's kind of expensive, so expect to see modest sales for the most part until the holidays, which is when Toys like this usually make the bulk of their sales. 

More like expect it to fall off the face of the planet in the next few weeks and go sub-5k and then pop back up for a very modest boost around the holidays (ala 1,2 Switch) and fizzle out with sales well below Kirby in Japan. 

Nintendo is going to have huge problems selling its initial shipment in Japan because I think the next several weeks are gonna be quite ugly for it and retailers are likely going to have to discount it and put it in the clearance/bargain bin to get it off their hands (can't have product taking up that much space on your retail floor that's just collecting dust). 

And virtually no hardware sales boost during the 4 weeks that Labo has been out either. Brain Training or Nintendogs it ain't, hell I don't think it will match Nintendo Land's sales (which wasn't bundled) in Japan on Wii U.