lol.
ps3 and 360 are bigger shinier apples than ps2/xbox wheras ninty has gone from being an apple last gen, to a bunch of grapes with the Wii [more fun for more people (grapes are easier to share), and given to you in smaller chunks.

and 30% of 360 apples have maggots.

I think Nintendo came up with one big great idea this generation, an innovation borne of, perhaps, desperation, and the fact that they don't have the deep pockets of MS and Sony and needed to encourage 3rd party support beyond that given the GameCube:

Keep it simple and cheap.

Nintendo opted to do something new that doesn't cost R&D or consumers a lot of money, and keeps development costs down for everyone. Call it inspiration, call it recycling, that's the net effect it's having.

The more the epic HD titles get pushed back, the greater the odds against them recouping their significantly higher costs at current sales levels, the more the Wii direction looks like the right one.

(Ironically, it may be the Wii's success at broadening and revitalizing the videogame market that eventually makes the big-budget titles economically viable in the same sense Hollywood movies are. Right now, there appear to be serious questions about the viability of the high-end among publishers.)

I didn't say you were a hater, sheesh.

In some ways they really aren't competing, but it's a little bit more complicated I think.


When Sony entered the industry, their game system did sell so well because they targeted a new audience. Of course there were a lot of former SNES/Genesis owners that bought a PS, but the majority were totally new gamers I think. This group is today called the hardcore gamer, but it's not the same group that was called the hardcore gamers back in the SNES days.

The new hardcore gamers prefer FPS, Racing/Sports games and Sandbox RPG's. The old hardcore gamers prefered platformers, action-adventures and RPG's. The big difference between these genres is that FPS etc. all play in a real world, while for the others, a fantasy world suits much better.

This had a big impact in the PS1/N64 era: Nintendo continued to focus on those "fantasy-genres", which made those new hardcore gamers think that Nintendo is "kiddie".

Because of clever marketing and great third party relationships, Sony could make those new hardcore gamers the most important and biggest group in the gaming world.

With the Gamecube, Nintendo tried to fix all the mistakes they made during the N64 era: They skipped from modules to DVD's, they stopped to delay their games, they had much better third party relationships, they tried to get more games that target the new hardcore gamers (RE exclusivity is the best example.) But nothing happened, Nintendo stayed kiddie and therefore untouchable for those new hardcore gamers.

So, Nintendo understood that as long as Mario will be on their console, they will not be able to get the attention of this group. But they found a way out: Targeting a totally new audience that has no problem with Mario or other so-called kiddie games.


Nintendo is not competing with MS and Sony for those new hardcore gamers. But they are still competing in all the other ways.


Wow, I did not expect that this post becomes that long...

All videogame companies are competing for our money end of story.

I mostly agree with you, but I think it's not such a clear line between the hardcore gamers and the Sony-casuals, and it really depends on the definition how big this group is.

But in my eyes, there are a lot of casuals that go into that group of hardcore gamers, altough not being hardcore gamers, i.e. they are not playing a lot, owing only one console per gen and usually don't finish the games. But the important thing is that they are only interested in action/sports/racing games and that Nintendo is untouchable for them because of its kiddie image.

So for the issue I described, it is not really important how much those people play, but what they prefer to play. The word (hardcore) I have chosen was probably wrong, but I can't think up a better one. The important thing is that this group is bigger than 10 million, I expect them to be around 40 million, but this is a very rough guess.

The real casuals are still the bigger group, but they are so difficult to reach that they have not become the main target of the industry during the PS2 generation. If you look at the industry, the most games that are released (and are at least mediocre in quality) are targeting at those gamers I'm trying to describe, and that's why I call them the most important group during last generation.


First, I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, and second, I'm interested what you think about this!

I think we are getting closer

I agree with what you say, but that only happens because the Wii was able to find a new audience and therefore had the best start of the three consoles. To get those gamers, Nintendo needs the third parties as you say, and they are only coming because Nintendo is outselling the concurrence.

But if it were up to those gamers, they would prefer that those games come out for either the PS3 or the X360, and some of them are also buying these systems anyway. (The 10 million hardcores you mentioned) Others will buy no console at all, and a third group will buy a Wii, but they won't be totally happy with it.

Anyways, they are not so important anymore because the purists together with the new casual gamers will become more important this gen.

i honestly belive nintendo knew they would loose this gen if they went on the same path. So instead they changed angles and are batting in the non gamers, and slowly slowly more challening and longer party type games will come and eventually move into real games.

kind of like nicotene. It slowly makes you smoke more and more.

So the point being by the time next gen comes all these non gamers will be addicted to gaming and will be wanting whatever nintendo brings out at them.

 Exactly.  We only have so much money to spend.  Nintendo said it perfectly, they want you to play Wii instead of going to the movies, playing other games, watching TV, or spending time and money other ways. Genious.

Rol you summed it up perfectly. :)  Nintendo doesn't need to create all the great games itself, it's provided the hardware and some examples of how it can be used. Third parties can fill in the gaps they have left.

Hence my thread on the subject, which went a bit off topic.