De gustibus non est disputandum, so they say. But let’s give it a go anyway.
First of all, about those disputed terms ‘core’ and ‘hardcore’. They really don’t mean the same thing.
‘Core’ is a marketing term. It refers to the primary market for a company or a product, so there is no such thing as a ‘core’ gamer, because the ‘core’ varies between consoles and from time to time. The core market for Xbox 360 (roughly, male American college students) is different from the PS3 core (roughly, gaming technocrats), which is different from the Wii core (roughly, families). The core markets for different publishers and different games are different again, so the core market for GTA games is different from the core market for Petz games.
There’s no room for arguing this, because it is the way marketers actually use the term. So when Nintendo refer to the core Nintendo market they mean something like, but broader than, Nintendo fanboys.
‘Hardcore’ is a much more fluid term, because it tends to get appropriated by whichever group feels aggrieved by any particular console/studio/game. At its broadest it would refer to those who spend most of their disposable income/time on gaming – regardless of genre, but it has gradually shifted to refer to those who enjoy ‘serious’ games, or competitive games, or blood’n’guts games, or ‘challenging’ games.
But not all hardcore gamers are the same or have the same tastes. So it is probably not true to say that there is a specific hardcore market. But if there is, it spans across consoles.
Now, if you draw a Venn diagram of Nintendo core v hardcore it is possible to get a historical perspective of how big the overlap is. It is, roughly, the sales of Eternal Darkness on Gamecube. Which is a very small number. So it is not really surprising that ‘hardcore’ games have not historically performed outstandingly on Nintendo platforms.
So it is not really true to say that Nintendo has abandoned the hardcore. It didn’t really have all that much of it to start with.
And it isn’t really true to say that Nintendo has failed to reach out to the hardcore either (No more Heroes, Madworld, Deadly Creatures, Resident Evil and so on). It is probably more true to say that the hardcore hasn’t really reached out to the Wii (all those posts about ‘selling my Wii’, ‘gathering dust’, ‘never buying another Wii game’, ‘wait ‘til it drops in price’, ‘renting it’).
What really galls me is those who say they will let their money do the talking by not buying the console/games, but don’t let their money do the talking by actually buying the stuff that looks good.
It is your own fault guys.
As for the casual and shovelware. It won’t go away just because you want it to. No reason it should. It is like the ‘My Little Pony’ books – I hated them, but my daughters loved them so I had to get them and read them. But that never stopped there being good books, and it didn’t stop my daughters growing up sensible. Actually, bad books, and bad games, have a useful function. They teach people to differentiate between the good and the bad.
It’ll take some time, particularly with the market expanding as fast as it is, for this to have an effect. But it will do, and gaming will be the better for it – compare it with book publishing in the 1940’s and now.
So bring on the shovelware!
But don’t expect every game that you like to be bought by 10m people. It don’t work that way. You’re a niche, see.
So no, I won't reach out to my local community. I'll just buy the games I like,and tell my friends and family about them. that should do just fine.
Currently Online 
